Lawrence N. Barron is a native St. Louisan who received his bachelor’s degree in political science from Washington University in May of 1967. After further study in U.S. political history at Saint Louis University, he entered graduate theological study and received his Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1973. He subsequently served Presbyterian parishes in Iowa before returning to St. Louis in 1978 to become pastor of Berea Presbyterian Church, then located in the LaClede Town development in Midtown. While at Berea he was involved in advocacy work for low-income integrated housing and the desegregation of the metropolitan St. Louis area public schools. He researched and authored “A Roof over Every Head” under the auspices of the Presbytery of Elijah Parish Lovejoy following his service at Berea. He followed by serving as an interim specialist in parishes in Midland and Lubbock, Texas, and Carbondale, Illinois, and subsequently sought to apply his theological training to work in the government sector, most notably counseling convicted felony offenders as a state probation officer in Brownfield, Lubbock, and Dallas, Texas.

(attribution: Lawrence Barron, Nov 2023)