Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 4, 1992 TAG: 9201040105
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
LAST DAYS, SAD DAYS
On Tuesday, his last day as Montgomery County's sheriff, Louis Barber's office walls were spotted with metal hooks where photos, citations and plaques used to hang.Boxes of personal papers were stacked in a corner waiting to be carted out. Among them was a gift from a friend: a large wooden club similar to the one carried by legendary Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser.
Barber was busy preparing to turn things over on Jan. 1 to Republican Ken Phipps, who unseated him in November's election.
The soon-to-be-former sheriff wasn't feeling well. He is diabetic and he had suffered one form of flu or another most of December. He appeared to have lost weight. His stomach was bothering him. Packing away the accumulation of 14 years, by itself, must have been tough to digest.
Although people have been known to shoot at him on the job, Barber said he would miss being the county's top cop.
"I'd have liked to have finished one more term and then retired. On the other hand, from a physical standpoint, maybe it was just as well that I don't."
Barber, 48, looks back with satisfaction on his accomplishments, such as the professional staff he built over the years, his use of surplus state and federal property to save the taxpayers money, drug abuse education for elementary school children and computerizing the sheriff's office.
His plans are uncertain, but Barber - who grew up in Christiansburg - said he probably will leave the New River Valley soon. He recently renewed all of his law enforcement certifications. He has had a couple of job offers, although he will not identify them.
Barber, once chairman of the Virginia Criminal Justice Services Board, was held in high regard by all state law enforcement agencies, said Roanoke City Sheriff Alvin Hudson, president of the Virginia Sheriff's Association. There was not a better-qualified sheriff in the state, Hudson said.
Barber's spirit of cooperation was unusual for an elected sheriff, Blacksburg Police Chief Don Carey said. "I was very pleased with the way he ran the Sheriff's Department. It was one of the most professional I've ever seen."
Carey compared Barber's mind with a bear trap. He could grasp details and hold them tight, the chief said.
Barber became sheriff via judicial appointment rather than election. He replaced former Sheriff Barney Arnold, who resigned as part of a plea bargaining arrangement. Barber was sworn in as sheriff on Sept. 1, 1977, when he was 34.
Barber first tried his hand at politics in 1978 when he ran in a special election to fill Arnold's unexpired term. He defeated Republican challenger Russell Duncan by a 3-1 margin.
In the regular county election the following year, Barber ran unopposed. He ran twice more without opposition until Phipps beat him with 54 percent of the vote in November.
Barber is still troubled by the campaign of innuendo used against him.
If he'd had to use mud-slinging tactics like those used against him, he wouldn't have wanted the office, Barber said. He said he knows for a fact that people who were directly involved in Phipps' effort were responsible for letters circulated anonymously to drag his personal life into the campaign.
Phipps has condemned the use of the letters and has said he had nothing to do with them. "I had no desire to go that route," the new sheriff said.
The letters insinuated that Barber, who was involved in a messy divorce, had financed a romantic liaison with county money. Although Barber successfully demonstrated that he had not abused his public trust, he may have damaged himself with some voters by going public in his own defense just before the election.
Barber erupts with sardonic laughter when asked what he has learned about politics during his years in office. The scrutiny given a candidate's private life scares 90 percent of the good candidates off, he said. "That, and the expense of it."
The years and events have weighed on Barber.
"A good ol' country boy" is the way former Christiansburg Police Chief Grover Teel once described Barber, who was a town policeman for 5 1/2 years. "He always took everything in stride. He never got in a hurry or got uptight."
Barber's father died when he was 4 1/2. The future sheriff began working at age 9, carrying clothing from a retail store in Christiansburg to a local seamstress for alterations. He continued working, missing out on sports and other extra-curricular activities in high school.
Barber graduated from Christiansburg High School in 1961. He learned welding and metal work at Hobart Technical School in Troy, Ohio, where he graduated in 1963.
After selling part ownership in service station in 1968, he worked as a parts manager for a local automobile dealership until he was appointed a deputy by Sheriff Grady McConnell. Barber worked as a deputy for three years until McConnell was defeated in the 1971 election. He then joined the Christiansburg police force.
Barber was shot but not seriously injured in 1975 when he confronted a 23-year-old Roanoke man and his hostage. The man had shot 11 people, killing four, in a two-day shooting spree.
"I felt like I got slam-dunked with a basketball," Barber said.
As the result of another shooting while he was sheriff, Barber suffers permanent hearing damage. That time, a murder suspect came out of a trailer shooting. Barber, who was trying to talk the man into giving up, dropped out of the line of fire as several law officers behind him fired their shotguns at the man.
At the time of his first election, Barber had a staff of 36 and managed a $500,000 budget. The current budget for the sheriff's office is $3.2 million, supporting a staff of 92. Barber calls his staff his greatest achievement. "They're all professionals," he said.
From his first year as sheriff, Barber has left his mark. One change was to charge other jurisdictions for prisoners kept in the county jail.
"I operated on the same principle that Conrad Hilton did: There was not a nickel in an empty bed," Barber told the Board of Supervisors last month.
His jail was one of few to contract with a local school system for teachers to work with inmates. Barber knows no inmate who got his high school equivalency diploma who ever returned to jail.
Barber also was recognized for employing the physically handicapped with an award from the state Department of Rehabilitation. "I guess I'm right proud of that, too," he said.
During his 14 years, Barber sued the state Compensation Board for additional money 13 times, writing each suit himself. The state provides most of the funding for local sheriff's offices.
Barber won all of the suits.
As an administrator, Barber said he has always been guided by the thought that there are two sides to every story. He also described himself as somebody who's continually trying to learn something new. "If a day goes by that you don't learn something new, then you've lost a day."
Barber has met a lot of characters during his year's in law enforcement. One that sprang to mind was the habitual drunk who called Barber up in the middle of the night one winter.
The man planned to do something to get himself thrown into jail, but first he wanted the sheriff's assurances that he could get his job back as a jail trusty.