Canadian history scholar Thomas G. Barnes dies

BERKELEY — Thomas Garden Barnes, a professor emeritus of history and law at the University of California, Berkeley, and a leader in the development of Canadian studies in the United States, died on March 9 after suffering a stroke. He was 79. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon credited Barnes with increasing the understanding of Canada in the United States and with promoting closer political, economic and cultural ties between the two countries. “Tom was a once-in-a-generation scholar and visionary who witnessed decades of Canadian history and politics firsthand,” Cannon said in a letter to the family following Barnes’ death. “He had the ear of prime ministers and ministers, as well as ambassadors and diplomats on both sides of the border, and he used his influence with integrity in the pursuit of scholarship and teaching. Barnes also was known for his commitment to scholarship about military history and to the UC Berkeley’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). He was a charter member since 1976 of the faculty committee for the campus’s ROTC program and the program chair from 1990 to 2005.