Noted UWI geography professor David Barker has died

Retired University of the West Indies (UWI) professor and one of the region’s top geographers, Dr David Barker, has died.

Barker passed away on Saturday at age 74.

Economist and former UWI lecturer Dr Michael Witter has hailed his former colleague as a “good human being”.

“I was privileged to know him. RIP, David, thanks for being you and all you taught me,” Witter said in a post on Facebook yesterday.

Professors Rupert Lewis and Donna Hope, the Deputy Dean for Graduate Studies and Research in the Faculty of Humanities and Education, also expressed condolences.

One of Barker’s latest works was the 2016 book “Global Change and the Caribbean: Adaptation and Resilience” that he edited with Dr Thera Edwards, Dr Duncan McGregor and Dr Kevin Rhiney.

Barker worked at the UWI’s Mona Campus in Jamaica from 1980, advancing to the position of professor of geography in 2005, then emeritus professor in 2015.

He headed the geography department from 1994 to 1996 and from 2005 until his retirement in 2012.

Professor Barker’s research focused on Caribbean small-scale farming as a way of understanding the interactions between agricultural systems, rural development, tropical environments, indigenous knowledge and land degradation, according to a UWI online staff portal.

Professor Barker was co-founding editor of the Caribbean Geography journal in 1983.

He is a past president of the Jamaican Geographical Society.

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