Henry Arthur Barron

1929 - 2015 

Henry Barron and his brother, Richard (Dick), were nationally noted for their work as evangelists and singers in the Seventh-day Adventist church from the 1950s and into the early 1970s. While both were soloists, they were widely known as the Barron Brothers, highly regarded for the warmth and beauty of their duets.

Henry was born in Los Angeles on April 20, 1929, the third oldest of three sons and a daughter born to Henry Clinton, Jr., a physician in California, and Emile Rose Swift Barron. Henry would be active as a musician and have extensive musical training during his studies in theology at Pacific Union College; Washington Missionary College, now Washington Adventist University; and La Sierra College, now University.

Near the end of 1949, while still in college, he assisted Richard, who was working as an evangelist in western Pennsylvania, and in early 1950 sang in a quartet that assisted George Vandeman in evangelistic meetings held in the Sligo Church in Takoma Park, Maryland. During his final studies in theology at LSC, he was a charter member of The Collegians, the select LSC choral group.

Following graduation from LSC in 1952, he married Pansy Marie Stricklin on June 12, and then moved to Texas, where he began his service as a minister and worked as an evangelist with Stanley Harris. He and his wife would have four children, Cindy, David, Jonathan, and Shari..

While in Texas, he and his brother attended a workshop in evangelism conducted by Fordyce Detamore and Ray Turner, which inspired them to work together as full-time evangelists. They formed The Barron Brothers Evangelistic  Team and worked together from 1955 to 1959, holding meetings in Texas, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa.

In 1959 Barron accepted a call to be pastor-evangelist in Texas and a year later became pastor at the Westminster, California, church. He next served as youth pastor at the La Sierra College church and in 1967 joined the Greater New York Conference, where he served as ministerial secretary and coordinator of evangelism and director of the New York Center. He was chosen secretary of the SDA Ministerial Association in 1968.

In 1972, his brother Richard died in a flying accident while visiting in Walla Walla, Washington. A year after this loss, Henry became director-speaker for The Builders of Faith radio program in California. He continued to work in evangelism for the remainder of his career.

Henry and Richard recorded five albums for Chapel Records. A record of their singing, titled Come to Jesus, My Friend, A Memorial to Dick Barron was released in 1978. The Barrons were living in Westminster, Colorado, when Pansy died on January 12, 2011, at age 81. Henry was living in Bloomfield, Texas, at the time of his death on January 4, 2015, at age 85, after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease.  

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Sources: Record liners from recordings of the Barron brothers released by Chapel Records; Obituary for Henry Clinton Barron, PUR, 12 November 12, 1973, pg. 5; Introducing A New Ministerial Association Secretary," Ministry Magazine, May 1968, pg. 9; News Notes, Pacific Union Recorder, including "Elder Henry Barron Speaks at Recent Week of Prayer," December 9, 1968 and "Henry Barron Becomes Director-Speaker of ‘Builders of Faith' Radio Program," Pacific Union Reaper, August 6, 1973; 1930 and 1940 U.S. Census Records; Notices of evangelistic meetings listed in the 1980s in Outlook, the Mid-America Union SDA Conference magazine, personal knowledge (I met and heard them when they were working in Pennsylvania); Henry Arthur Barron time line, Life Story, Ancestry .com; Obituary, Farmington, Texas, Daily Times, 11 January 2015.