![\"George](\"http:\/\/comebacktown.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/George-Barber.jpg\")
<\/a>By Don Erwin<\/em><\/p>\n Many fine articles have been published about George Barber\u2019s life and accomplishments.<\/p>\n I would like to add a personal perspective.<\/p>\n I first met George about 1997 when I visited the Barber Museum in downtown Birmingham, where Trim Tab is now located. From the outside, it looked like an old warehouse, but inside, it was 40,000 sq. ft. of motorsports wonder. I later took a German business prospect to the museum, and after ten minutes, he took out his phone and cancelled his appointments in Atlanta later that day.<\/p>\n As an economic developer, I helped George with the new Barber Museum & Park. A few years later, I went to work for him.<\/p>\n George financed almost all the construction of the nonprofit Barber Museum & Park\u2014many tens of millions of dollars\u2014but it wasn\u2019t easy. We struggled doing a deal with the City of Birmingham, to get the proper zoning, and environmentalists thought we would destroy the Cahaba River. \u201cI\u2019ve never worked so hard to give away so much money,\u201d George would periodically say.<\/p>\n The environmental opposition hurt George, since he was such an ardent environmentalist. When Forever Wild was first created, it required a vote of the people. Millions of Barber\u2019s Dairy milk cartons urged citizens to vote for it. George was also instrumental in the formation of the Nature Conservancy in Alabama.<\/p>\n George envisioned a beautiful park that just happened to have a road racing track flowing through it. It would have thousands of flowers, large grassy areas, and no grandstands. The finished park showed that technology and nature could coexist side-by-side.<\/p>\n About the time we were doing the Barber Park, Birmingham was debating whether to build a domed stadium. \u201cI don\u2019t know how you feel about a domed stadium,\u201d George said, \u201cbut it would just put us in competition with the two dozen or so cities that already have them. I want to do something for Birmingham where we won\u2019t have much competition.\u201d\u00a0 Before the Barber Park opened in January 2003, we had landed Porsche\u2018s largest driving school in the world.<\/p>\n In 2009, we invited the Indycar organization to conduct a free Spring practice at the Barber Park, and they were so impressed that we\u2019ve hosted an Indycar race every year since (except for covid).<\/p>\n At some point, George said, \u201cIt\u2019s too late to have the best auto museum in the world. There are so many good ones. But it might be possible to have the largest and best motorcycle museum in the world.\u201d In 2014, the Guiness World Records organization certified the Barber Museum as the world\u2019s largest motorcycle museum.<\/p>\n George was born in Birmingham, lived most of his life in Birmingham, and built the Barber Museum & Park in Birmingham. He lived on top of Red Mountain, and his house looked directly down on 20th<\/sup> Street. He was a huge UAB fan. \u201cFrom up here, I can see who\u2019s making things happen. I just look for the construction cranes, and most of them are at UAB.\u201d George contributed millions to UAB for endowed chairs.<\/p>\n When the Barber management team went out for lunch\u2014usually a meat and three\u2014George typically wouldn\u2019t drink iced tea. He thought it was overpriced. He wouldn\u2019t buy the 904 Porsche he had driven to 2nd<\/sup> in class and 7th<\/sup> overall at Daytona in 1965 because it had gotten so expensive. Yet outside my office door, hanging on the wall, was a priceless gigantic glass flower by artist Dale Chihuly, and George spent millions of dollars on motorcycles and autos he thought were good value.<\/p>\n Growing up, my children got tired of hearing, \u201cIf George Barber can turn off the lights when he leaves the room then you can, too.\u201d<\/p>\n George led by example. If he was showing someone the museum and park and saw a cigarette butt or a scrap of litter on the ground, he would lean over, pick it up, and palm it until he found a trash receptacle. Employees and fans noticed. After large events at the Barber Park, fans leave the grounds typically almost spotless.<\/p>\n George loved a good joke. Driving an Auburn official on a tour of the Barber Park, George said \u201cIt\u2019s worked out well here, except we\u2019ve had this huge bug problem.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh, we can get someone from the university to help you with that,\u201d said the Auburn official. And then he saw the giant spider and ant sculptures, and George just smiled.<\/p>\n George loved having schoolchildren visit the Barber Museum. Occasionally, I would speak to a group and would ask them, \u201cGeorge Barber can drive any car in the world he wants, so what do you think he drives?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA Cadillac\u2014a Lamborghini\u2014a Ferrari,\u201d they would say.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, he drives a Honda minivan,\u201d I would say, and they would look at me blankly. I would explain, \u201cMr. Barber doesn\u2019t let other people tell him what\u2019s cool. He decides that for himself.\u201d<\/p>\n At one point, Alabama had specialty auto tags, but no specialty motorcycle tags. We wanted a Barber Museum motorcycle tag, so we had a bill drafted for the next legislative session.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you have a preference for a lobbyist,\u201d I asked him. \u201cYes,\u201d he said. \u201cYou.\u201d<\/p>\n He thought it was easier for me to learn to be a lobbyist than to teach a lobbyist what they needed to know about the Barber Museum & Park. And he was right.<\/p>\n George never married and had no children, but he chose people for his companies and the Barber Museum & Park who shared his visions. They are some of the most competent people I\u2019ve ever known. I am confident they will take the companies, the museum, and the park far into the future.<\/p>\n I retired in 2020 when I was 65. I wanted to write and publish a novel, and I couldn\u2019t do that working for Barber, since I sometimes acted as a spokesperson. After retirement, we kept in regular contact.<\/p>\n Last year, George asked me how things were going, and I told him I was working on a second novel, but it was a struggle. \u201cJust keep working,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A few weeks later, I received a package in the mail. It was a framed photo of George standing in the infield of the Barber Park beside one of his full-sized buffalo sculptures, reading my first novel, Buffalo Hunting in Alabama<\/em>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the George Barber I knew. I will greatly miss him.<\/p>\n Other columns written by Don Erwin you might enjoy:<\/em><\/p>\n David Sher is the founder and publisher of\u00a0ComebackTown<\/strong><\/a><\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0He\u2019s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>Don Erwin was an economic developer for twelve years and worked for Barber Companies for almost eighteen years. He is the author of\u00a0Buffalo Hunting in Alabama<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, a novel about the competition among cities and states to attract economic development projects. He lives in the Birmingham metro.<\/em><\/p>\n