Barr served in the
Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during
World War II. Following the conflict, he returned to Columbia, where he earned an
M.A. in English in 1950 and completed some course requirements for a
Ph.D. in the discipline while also teaching in the English department. Toward the end of his tenure as headmaster, he hired college dropout
Jeffrey Epstein, who would later be convicted of sex trafficking, as a math and science teacher. In February 1974, Barr announced his resignation at the end of the school year. At Dalton, Epstein tutored the children of
Alan Greenberg, who later offered him a job at
Bear Stearns. Barr also reviewed books for
The New York Times. In addition to his two science fiction novels, he sold two stories to
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction; one of these (the 2002 "Sam") was reprinted in the 2003 anthology ''Year's Best Fantasy 3''. In 1983 President
Ronald Reagan nominated Donald Barr to be a member of the
National Council on Educational Research. == Selected works ==