John Barr ’70 was the featured speaker at the March 6 Ruth A. Miller Senior Business Seminar. John is a retired sales and marketing executive who spent much of his career with the Eastman Kodak Company and has also served on the Thiel College Board of Trustees.
“John applied to only three schools when looking for colleges. They were Lycoming College, Grove City College, and Thiel College. He knew when he stepped onto campus, Thiel was the one he wanted to go to. He started as a sociology major for his first three years and did not want anything to do with business. Eventually, he took a business class with Dr. Miller and loved it. He graduated with a minor in business.” Nick DiLullo ’24
“During his senior year, Barr accepted a position at Kodak in Rochester, NY, where he dedicated 28 years of his career. Despite facing challenges, including being let go from his job at Kodak, Barr remained resilient and motivated not to fail. His instincts guided him to embrace change, leading to personal and professional growth. Beyond his corporate career, Barr's involvement extended to serving on 12 boards and holding leadership positions, including as a former vice president of the board of trustees at Thiel College.” Jackson Pletcher ’24
“Unlike many of the previous speakers, John Barr did not make his speech about his own life, but rather focused more on what struggles we will face, and how we should face them as we start to move forward from college to the workforce. He also focused on how to determine your own purpose and how he determined his purpose as life presented challenges to him.” Alex Martin ’24
“John Barr started us off with two questions, ‘What is my purpose?’, and ‘How will my purpose help motivate me to make a difference in the world?’. This question forced me to truly think and listen intently to see how he discovered his purpose.” Zach Bergstresser ’25
“The central theme of his dialogue revolved around the question, ‘What is my purpose?’ He encouraged us to reflect on how our purpose motivates us to make a real difference in the world. Barr elaborated on how life's purpose evolves based on where we are in life.” Jacara Green ’25
“’As you mature and age your purpose will grow and evolve.’ This is important and a valuable life lesson, some things that may be important in the moment to you may not be important in a year.” Aiden Rispoli ’24
“After talking about his life, Barr explained that our purposes will change throughout life. For example, when he was married and was a father, his purpose was to provide for his family. After retiring, his new purpose is to give back to the people and communities that helped him succeed.” Abraham Hochstetler ’24
“Balancing the financial responsibilities of a child in college, two car payments, and a teenager, he realized that his purpose at that moment was to take care of his family. He then provided guidance on how to define and refine one's purpose.” Jacara Green ’25
“These opening questions inevitably cause some anxiety and uncertainty, luckily John anticipated this and gave us ten lessons to live by. These lessons are, embrace optimism, give of yourself, keep an open mind, trust your instincts, travel as much as you are able, be good to yourself, stay true to yourself, lean into adversity, leverage your passion, and always be prayerful.” Isaac Sasala ’24
“He then explained to us the four phases of his life, which included fighting this fear of failure, providing for and protecting his family, career success, and paying his blessings forward. He mentioned that his favorite stage of life, other than providing for his family, has been giving back to his community and those that he loves.” Madi Yurich ’24
“He emphasized the importance of tapping into one's passions and praying for patience, and strength. He shared his own journey from sociology to business, emphasizing the importance of trying new things in finding one's path.” Yeryoung Kim ’24
“John also told us to lean into our anxiety and fears. For most people, when something that scares us or rocks our anxiety, our first instinct is to panic and get away from the situation. Not realizing we are not handling the issue at hand but pushing it away. We have to be able to lean into the fear and say that although I’m scared, I’m going to take it one step at a time and figure things out. John was such an inspiring and genuine spirit that he left us with some very valuable gems that I will always carry with me for the rest of my life and career.” Taya Sykes ’24
“Some interesting aspects of his presentation, however, was the idea that we are young enough to fail and so we shouldn’t be afraid. I definitely agree that school and parents and other systems make it so we are afraid of failure. By conquering this fear we can take hold of more opportunities and make mistakes that we can learn from instead of never learning at all.” Georger Tice ’24
“The advice to lean into it was odd when he first mentioned it, but after his explanation and more thought, he could not be more right. To enjoy and get what you want out of life, you must understand there are factors you cannot control and all you can do is take the risks to get what you want while you can.” Connor Lovic ’24
“Another point that John brought up that I found to be important was to make sure you stay true to yourself. As we are just beginning our professional careers it is safe to say that we are going to want to impress our employer. While this is a good thing to strive for, it is important to know the limitations of what you are willing to do and I will keep this in the back of my mind as I take steps forward.” Julianne Slagle ’24
“Many people have chosen different directions, neglecting to give God the credit He deserves. Barr's statements about God moved me, reminded me of the importance of faith and acknowledging divine guidance in our lives.” Jacara Green ’25
“Another thing he said that will always stick with me is when you have to work with people you do not like is to always show respect and be patient, but you must have a spine if you need to stick up for yourself.” Aiden Rispoli ’24
“I really appreciated the fact that he knew my name before I introduced myself since I connected with him on LinkedIn. It made me feel important since he took the time to look at my profile and remember who I was.” Hailey McClain ’24
“One thing I enjoy about John Barr is his reliance on the lifelong friends he has made at Thiel. He has explained in multiple ways how they helped him on his way forward in life.” Jacob Traupman ’24
“The overall message I got from John was that we have this one truly incredible life, and we should make the most of it all.“ Damion Grinnell ’25
“Overall, John was a fantastic speaker and a huge thanks to him!” Connor Lovic ’24
Lessons Learned
Dinner “Dishing”