There are no Halls of Fame for teachers. If there were, Charleston Southern University professors Dr. Jim Barrier and Mr. Steve Best would be enshrined in the biology wing.

They’ve put up Hall of Fame numbers. Working side by side in the biology department at CSU since 1973, Barrier and Best have 77 years combined teaching experience, producing 871 biology graduates. They have taught literally thousands of Charleston Southern students. Now all that’s needed is the hall to preserve their fame in University history.

For years they have been referred to on campus affectionately as Barrier and Best. Not Barrier. Not Best. Barrier and Best. One has always seemed to follow, like footsteps, succinctly after the other. Like those revered in sports and later inducted into a Hall of Fame, Barrier and Best have had equal impact in the classroom. With little fanfare their former students have graduated to become today’s doctors and physicians, researchers, biologists, even colleagues.

Dr. Amy Nolan enrolled at Charleston Southern in 1991. She was 83 miles from home (Sumter, South Carolina). She was on her own for the first time in her life, and in no time, homesick.

“I can remember being extremely homesick,” said Nolan. “They (Barrier and Best) kept me here. I really think that I would have gone back home because I was young and had never been away from home but that connection with a professor. That’s what really matters.”

Nolan said she remembers looking forward to her botany class. Sure, as a biology major, she was interested in the subject, but more than that it was the influence of Barrier and Best. “They were so funny and so real,” she said. “No matter how homesick I was, being in class made me realize that I needed to be here. Dr. Barrier always has a smile that is contagious.”

After graduating with a biology degree from CSU in 1994, Nolan continued her studies at The Medical University of South Carolina, earning a doctorate degree in cell molecular pharmacology and experimental therapeutics, and then studied the effects an individual’s diet has on breast cancer. In 2000, she returned to CSU as a professor, and today teaches alongside the same professors who mentored her.

“Both of them influenced my teaching style more than any other two professors that I’ve ever had,” said Nolan, recipient of the Center for Excellence in Teaching Award in 2004. “They were organized, but they related the content to something that had real-life application. One of the benefits of coming to CSU is that students have the opportunity to connect with professors. I really modeled myself after those two because I connected with them.”

Dr. Melinda Walker enrolled at the University in 1977. Her goal was simple: Get her two-year nursing degree and get a job.

“I didn’t like it. I didn’t enjoy it,” Walker said. “A nursing professor called me in and said, you never smile, you don’t look happy, what is going on? When you’re with patients you look like you’re afraid?”

She was afraid, and she told her instructor.

“Maybe you should change your major?’” her professor asked.

After reviewing her grades, the professor recognized a clear pattern: She was making straight A’s in the science and biology courses she had taken as prerequisites. “Let me send you over to speak with Mr. Best,” said the professor.

“I changed my major because of his guidance,” she said. “He not only welcomed me; he gave me hope for the future. He told me what my future could be.”

Walker shares that same hope, those same opportunities with today’s Charleston Southern students, working alongside Barrier and Best in the science department.

“So many come in wanting to go into nursing or medical school, but they don’t have the grades to do it,” said Walker. “Instead of just letting them fall off I let them know, you could go into psychology, you could be a teacher, you can go into lab work, all these different things. It’s important to let students know there are options. Don’t give up and quit school. I continue what Mr. Best taught me with today’s students.”

Joseph Russell ’07 is in medical school at the University of South Carolina. Like his father, Roger Russell ’83, a pathologist in Charleston, Joseph wants to be a doctor. Like Dad, he did his undergraduate studies at Charleston Southern University, a double major in biology and chemistry. Like father, like son, multiple generations have now learned from Barrier and Best.

“He took the same classes I took, years before, before I was born,” said Russell. “My father has fond memories of Barrier and Best. When I was enrolling, he was wondering if they would still be there. I sought them out myself. I wanted to make sure I was in their classes. He (father) encouraged me to take anything I could with them. My father was already telling me what a treat I was in for. That gives you an idea of the legacy these guys have at CSU.”

Early in his undergraduate education Barrier and Best arranged for Russell to be a lab assistant. “I didn’t understand how important those extracurricular jobs are for getting into medical school; they knew and made sure I was in a position to be a lab assistant,” he remembers. “That went a long way in preparing me with a solid application for medical school. It was wonderful to have professors who knew what their students needed to reach their goals.”

The pair’s friendship started when Steve Best was a graduate student at Clemson, and Jim Barrier taught freshmen. They crossed paths, struck up a conversation and realized they had a common interest: fishing. In fact, most every conversation with or about Barrier and Best comes back around to fishing.

“Dr. Barrier loves to fish,” said Walker. “When he comes to campus in his truck, he’s always pulling one of those little boats – every day. He always uses the excuse that he’s going to get samples for botany. He takes off for an hour and goes fishing.”

Time flies … when you’re fishing. The passion hasn’t waned either. The excuses to sneak away to get their fishing fix live on – as long as there’s a botany class to teach.

Barrier and Best became friends because of fishing, and according to Barrier, fishing is one reason they’ve spent the last 40 years in Charleston. In 1970, when the University advertised they were looking for a biology professor, Barrier applied. He was later offered the job.

“I had two choices,” he said. “I interviewed here and at Auburn.”

Why Charleston Southern and not Auburn?

“Hey, Santee Cooper lakes, the fishing capital of the world,” said Barrier. “What’s in Auburn, except a reputation?”

In 1973, Dr. Best was teaching at Greenville Technical College when another position opened in the biology department at the Baptist College (now Charleston Southern). Barrier interviewed Best for the position. The rest is history.

Let the fishing begin.

“For years and years we used to hit it twice a day,” confessed Best.

Barrier and Best fished; sometimes alone, sometimes together, sometimes with students, sometimes with colleagues and, at least one time, with President Dr. Jairy C. Hunter. Barrier and the late CSU business professor Stan Ricketts took President Hunter and his daughter, Jill, fishing at Santee Cooper. While Jill fished with Barrier, Hunter cast a line alongside Ricketts.

“It didn’t take long for her (Jill) to land a good-sized bass,” remembers Barrier. “Being the good, kind neighbor I said, ‘I’ll take Jill’s fish home and I’ll filet in for you and get it back to you. I forgot about it because it was mixed up with my other fish. I ended up frying that fish and ate it.”

CSU students Joseph Russell and Brandon Mizzell went fishing with Barrier too, and let’s be clear, James Barrier is confident of two things: his knowledge of science and his ability to catch more fish than you or I.

“Brandon and I were in one boat, and Barrier was by himself in another boat,” said Russell. “The competition was he could catch more fish than Brandon and I combined. The winner would buy lunch.

“He was trolling around that lake with a fishing rod, one in each hand, just reeling them in and laughing at our miserable failure all the way. At the end of the day we caught three fish, he caught more than 30.”

Fishing became part of their legacy. As part of Tri Beta, the biology department honor club, Barrier and Best began hosting a fish fry for faculty, staff and students. “They would catch all this fish and have a fish fry,” remembers Walker. “They would catch it, clean it, freeze it, batter it and fry it.”

“It goes back a long time to our Clemson days,” said Best. “We were in an area where you followed your heart. We were working with a lot of professors there who had wildlife programs, going fishing, camping, hiking.

We thought we had died and gone to heaven as biologists. So when we got here we just continued that, and we’d sponsor a fish fry.”

Since 1970, when Jim Barrier first arrived at Charleston Southern, there have been eight U.S. presidents. The New York Yankees have won seven World Series championships. Billy Graham visited campus, Warren Peper and Keith Summey graduated and the CSU Bucs basketball team experienced March Madness. The Lightsey Chapel Auditorium was built, the Wingate Hotel opened, colleague Steve Best won the Center for Excellence in Teaching – twice – and, in 2005, a state-of-the-art Science Building was christened.

That last one, the Science Building opening, almost happened without them.
“ Dr. Barrier wanted to retire before we moved in,” said Best. “I said, ‘Hey, you can’t do that. We’ve been with the school too long to say that we’re going to leave before we have a new building. That means you’re going to turn over your job and a new building to a new professor, that’s not gonna happen. Let’s stick around for a while.’”

They stuck around.

Barrier and Best stuck around to see the $13 million, 54,000-square-foot Science Building open. For a long time the eight research and 11 teaching laboratories and 15 faculty offices in the building had the signature scent that says new.

“We now have a state-of-the-art facility, but one thing that has never changed with them (Barrier and Best) is the quality of instruction,” said Nolan. “Their teaching in the ‘70s is the same as it was through the ‘90s and today.”

Then, the shine began to fade. The excitement of the new building waned. Finally, last spring, while sitting in lab, Barrier started feeling tired. “What am I doing this for?” Barrier asked himself. “I should be home taking a nap, resting up. I don’t need this.”

Just like that Barrier’s 40-year career at Charleston Southern began winding down. This May, Barrier and Best will retire.

“We’ve been talking,” said Best. “We’ve been friends for years and years. I talked him into staying a few years ago, but then we said, when we go, let’s just both go. Bow out of this thing together.”

Best’s wife, a public school principal, is also retiring this year. “We’re going to take it easy for a while,” said Best. “Retirement is a big decision, after being here that many years (37). We have other interests outside of CSU, and so, we’re going to prospect those interests. We look at it as changing gears, shifting into another gear and doing something else.”

Barrier’s wife retired in 2000; she wanted her husband to “hang it up” then, but he held out. Barrier still had the passion – and energy – to teach. Then, last summer while on vacation in Myrtle Beach, Barrier experienced chest pains and went to the hospital. It was a wake-up call.

Barrier thought, “You know what, something may happen and I don’t get to do all we want to do, maybe it’s time to hang it up. But I feel good now. That will keep me out on the lakes and golf courses for a while.”

“We’re probably going to get into my wife’s new Prius and spend about six weeks, travelling,” said Barrier. “Take our time and see the country.”

“I will miss the students,” said Best. “As a faculty member you really get energized by the classroom environment. That will be the biggest adjustment. They keep you young. They keep you on your toes. They keep you thinking.”