John Barker came to NMH because he wanted more out of his education. “I was ready to experience more than the schools at home,” he says. “I was interested in trying the boarding school experience. It was a leap of faith.”

It was a leap he’s glad he took. “It wasn’t just one person, one moment, one memory,” he says as he reflects on what made his NMH experience so special. “It was the collective community: the teachers, the staff, my classmates. The intimacy of the teacher-student relationship, the dorm parent relationship. The commitment of the faculty and staff. The diversity of the student body. The beauty of the campus. The totality of the experience most shaped me.

“The teenage years are so impressionable,” he continues. “I am grateful for the great role models I had, whom I appreciate all the more with time and age. NMH offered such a wonderful environment for these developmental years. It had such a profound impact.”

Eager to make that experience available to more students, in 2021, he established the John Barker Endowed Scholarship Fund. The scholarship gives preference to students who are active in the community and stewards of the campus, the environment, and the world — a reflection of his longtime passion for outdoor education.

“The vision of D.L. Moody, the mission and values of the school, are a guiding light to carry throughout life,” John says. “The mission and values are deeply ingrained. I feel that more and more, and [I see it] in the communications shared by the school. It’s one of the reasons for my motivation to leave a lasting gift and legacy. I want the school to not only survive, but to thrive.

“I know schools need financial support far in excess of tuition,” he adds. “I want the school to be

accessible to students, regardless of their financial resources and circumstances. I want to help the school however I can, to help the students, as a way to pay back.”

John has been motivated by This Place, This Moment: The Campaign for Northfield Mount Hermon, specifically, the campaign scholarship match. When he established the scholarship fund, he says, he was eager to keep growing the fund over time. “The match offered an incredible opportunity to accelerate that growth and my giving,” he says. “It was motivating, inspiring me to dig deeply, to give more.” He encourages his classmates and the rest of the NMH community to do the same, he adds.

After graduating from NMH, John studied at Colorado College and the University of Denver, then went on to a career in banking, telecommunications, global manufacturing, and public service with the State of Colorado. He retired in 2021 and lives in Denver with his wife, Maureen, with whom he has two children and two granddaughters. He enjoys staying connected with former classmates and local NMH alums. In his free time, he runs, works as a personal trainer, fosters service dogs, and volunteers at a therapeutic horseback-riding program for children who have disabilities — in short, finding ways to live NMH’s commitment to education for the head, heart, and hands.

It’s a commitment that he’s glad to help support for future generations. “I hope the school continues to evolve, that it never becomes complacent, that it continues to ask and answer the hard questions,” he says. “What do our students need? What does our community — local, regional, national, international — need from our students?”