Barton, Frederick "Rick" oral history interview, 2003

Frederick Durrie “Rick” Barton was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on September 5, 1949 to Robert Barton and Nancy Hemenway (Whitten) Barton. After four years the family moved to Spain and later to New York City. Rick went to public elementary schools, then attended Deerfield Academy and Harvard University. Ten years after college, while working in Boston, he received a MBA from Boston University. He recently received an honorary degree from Wheaton College. He worked on Bill Hathaway’s 1972 campaign then worked in his office until 1975. In 1976 he ran for congress and won the primary election but lost the general election against the incumbent David Emery. He then worked for Secretary Joseph Califano in the New England region as director of public affairs. In 1982 he was the finance chairman for Joe Brennan’s general election. He later was director of the Office of Transition Initiatives in the U.S. State Department. Starting in 1999, he worked at the United Nations as Deputy High Commissioner for refugees for two years. For a year he had a special professorship at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School. He later became director of the post-conflict reconstruction project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.