Gordon Barrick
The Artist and His Work
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The following article appeared in The Cleveland Plain Dealer late in January, 1942 shortly after Gordon Barrick's death. The photos to the right are from family sources and were not published with the original article.
The behind-the-scenes staff of a newspaper are those dedicated men who the public is seldom aware of.
They are the copy readers, the department editors, the make-up men, artists and photographers.
The reporters and writers, the columnists, on the other hand, those whose names are signed to articles get most of the glory.
But in the background are dozens of old reliables, staffers who but for their meticulous work, the newspaper could not appear.
For every writer and reporter there are dozens of others who insure that the printed word and picture gets to the reader.
Surely these behind-the-scenes men and women are equally if not more important to the organization.
The public knows the writers but it knows little about these unsung men in the background, who carry the hod and do the spade work.
But the folks in the office know them and respect them and applaud them for their labor.
Doc Barrick, head of the Editorial Art Department of The Cleveland Plain Dealer was one of these.
Barrick, night after night for 31 years, supervised the preparation of photos for engraving, painting backgrounds in or out, directing comic sketches for news stories, designing layouts, and on occasion turning out a large drawing representing a news picture, with speed and competence.
Every now and then, a managing editor would say to Barrick, "Doc, I'd like a drawing showing hundreds of bombers over London" or "Whip up a drawing of Japs landing on Lingayen Gulf" and within two or three hours, Doc would have it done, an original conception with life and action.
For he was a first rate artist who loved to work and teach, but most of all, when he had a chance, to go out in the woods and paint.
But in the workaday world, we all too often took the competence and faithfulness of such men as Gordon Barrick, for granted.
But Gordon Barrick had something else which is not always found in a business which is full of prima donnas and explosive tempraments.
He had unfailing kindness, courtesy, serenity and willingness to be patient with the young and the unskilled.
He was never too busy to take time out to explain to visitors the difficult processes of layout and photoengraving.
Gordon Barrick did not seek the limelight, and on the rare occasions where he had to see one of the bosses about something special, he always seemed diffident and unwilling to demand much time.
He was indeed the salt of the earth and none of us who worked with or under him had much appreciation of how long he had been with us, or how much he meant to us until after he had gone.
Gordon Barrick's love for art, inherited from his grandfather, sent him to the offices of the Cleveland Plain Dealer when he went forth to get a job 31 years ago.
Editorial Art department director for 24 years, he was just 56 when he died.
Mr Barrick was born in Cleveland on July 8, 1885.
He was educated in the public schools and went on to graduate from the Cleveland School of Art and later studied at the New York School of Illustrating and at the Art Students League.
He was director of the old Cleveland Academy of Fine Arts which he founded and which was located at West 57th Street and Detroit Avenues.
At one time he had taught drawing, painting, and anatomy at the former Ohio School of Commercial Art.
He had won numerous prizes for his landscape paintings and in recent years had private showings of his works at the Korner & Wood Studios at 1512 Euclid Avenue.
To everyone he was "Doc". This was because he could fix almost anything that refused to work.
A veritable Leonardo, he was versed in many practical things -- plumbing, carpentry and other things.
Nevertheless, painting was his greatest love. "It would be splendid to have all the time one wished in which to paint" he used to say.
It is difficult to list all of Gordon Barrick's activities. His friends regarded him as a human dynamo.
Listed in "Who's Who in American Art", he like to say "The sincere study of art is hard work. But it's fun."
One of his big days every year was the meeting of the Plain Dealer's Old Timers Club.
He thoroughly enjoyed the meetings--although he always gave his bottle of beer and cigar away.
