At the Heart of his Support: Pride in WPI’s Growth

Although Gregory Barnhart ’70 graduated prior to the implementation of the WPI Plan, there was no absence of project-oriented courses and hands-on learning during his WPI experience.

“In the late 1960s, electrical engineering majors were required to take a hands-on lab course in Washburn Labs, which included programming a computer numerical control machine as well as running a lathe, a welder, and other machine tools of the day,” he says. During their senior year, he and fellow students in a course of the late William R. Grogan ’46, dean emeritus of undergraduate studies, were sent to local companies to work on solving real-world problems. Grogan was known for his leadership role in the founding and implementation of project-based learning at WPI.

“It was quite challenging, and at the completion of each project, we were judged by our sponsor companies. As for my group, we flailed around before coming up with the same idea as the management team,” he says. “In retrospect, I now realize our experience was a prototype of the WPI Plan that Professor Grogan helped develop.”

Barnhart says while at WPI, he gained the requisite knowledge and fundamental reasoning and problem-solving skills to work as an electrical engineering professional. But he shifted his path early on in his professional career. “After two years in my dream job as an electronic design engineer, concurrently taking graduate-level history courses, it became obvious that my gregarious personality and self-confidence was better suited for a career in technical sales,” he says. “I transitioned to a career that was about the soft skills of interpersonal relationships.”

He rapidly gained responsibilities, and, at age 40, became vice president of sales at a $100 million semiconductor company.

Barnhart credits his Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity experience with giving him self-confidence to lead. “I would say that during my time at Lambda Chi Alpha, my personality was being forged in a fire of friendly teasing about my ‘differences,’” he says. “I was unanimously elected social chairman, yet I was teased about going to the Worcester Art Museum, reading Freud in the common room, and subscribing to electronics magazines. I would judge this forging of my personality as having the greatest impact on my life during and after my time at WPI.”

Before Barnhart left the corporate world at age 61 to pursue other interests, his professional career included developing two startup companies, serving as managing partner of a $500 million Silicon Valley sales representative company, and completing the turnaround of a semiconductor software sales organization. Always the learner, as he moved around the country for new jobs and promotions, he began to add the practical skills of carpentry, plumbing, and home remodeling to the skills he gained on The Hill. Today, those combined skills support Barnhart’s passion for building fantastical devices.

While in San Diego in 2013, he learned of the steampunk genre, which tickled both his historic and creative sides. “First, I started designing and making costumes for my wife and myself, learning leatherworking in the process. Then I moved on to learn machining, hearkening back to my time in Washburn Labs,” he says. “It was in the creation of these assemblages that I combined many of my skills and interests, from antiques and woodworking to machining and electronics. After filling up my house, I began showing my work at regional galleries and museums.”

Barnhart says he’s amazed at the transformation of WPI “from a little-known trade school for New England manufacturers to a top-tier polytechnic university with a worldview. I am continually impressed with WPI’s world-class research, along with the impact of its project-based learning model around the world.” When he returned to campus a few years ago, he was especially impressed by the Innovation Studio.

Trusting the university to use their gift to support WPI’s most pressing needs, Barnhart and his wife, Karen, became Alden Society members in 2018, when they informed WPI they had made plans to support WPI through a bequest. When asked about their generous financial support of the university, Barnhart says, “I am proud of what WPI has become, and I want to support its growth and vision going forward. I think all alumni should be proud of how far WPI has come and give back what they can to honor their alma mater’s tremendous accomplishments.”