Barrie Dallas Grenell’65

Antioch Class of 1965

Undeclared Major

Preferred Pronouns are She/Her

Bio- Tell us about your self

I grew up in Yellow Springs where my dad, Meredith Dallas, taught in the Theatre Department. I dropped out after two years and went to Boston where I met and married Peter Grenell (’61). We went to India for two and a half years where he was doing field work for a PhD in city planning. On our return to Boston, I enrolled at Boston University and graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy and Government. A couple years later we moved to San Francisco and then shortly after, returned to India for nearly two years, to New Delhi this time. My time in India was life changing, opened up my mind and world. In San Francisco I learned sign language then helped start and maintain a nonprofit organization that helped deaf people find employment. After nine years I continued to prepare many successful applications for funding for other nonprofit organizations and for the City and County of San Francisco, generating half a billion dollars for housing and homeless services.

How did Antioch College’s Co-op program prepare you for work life?

My co-op jobs were in a large NY State hospital for retarded people (to use the terminology of 1961) and a children’s psychiatric ward of a hospital in Rochester, NY. As a co-op, I was able to participate in diagnostic meetings and case conferences, and I even watched an autopsy. I learned all kinds of things about employment, large healthcare institutions, and so much else.
Co-op prepared me to handle new environments and to be an observer, which has helped me become a writer of both fiction and non-fiction, starting with letters home from India.

How did your Antioch experience prepare you for life?

I learned to function in many different roles, situations, and environments with all kinds of people. I was a hospital aide, receptionist, bookkeeper’s helper, research assistant, school teacher, and nonprofit manager (including program development, personnel management, fundraising, and budgeting). I have learned how to cook well, how to manage household help, how to maintain a household, and in Calcutta how to drive on the left–sharing the road with bicycles, trucks, tuk tuks, rickshaws, cows, pedestrians, bullock carts, and cars.

What does our charge to “win a victory for humanity” mean to you?

I cannot claim any victories for humanity, but I am pleased that I was able to do work that resulted in employment services for deaf people being available in many California cities, and for the technical assistance and support I was able to provide to scores of homeless housing and service providers in San Francisco that benefited thousands of homeless individuals, including ensuring that formerly homeless people would be permanently housed in decommissioned military bases in San Francisco’s Presidio and Treasure Island.

I am pleased that I was helpful in reviving the college and developing the Bay Area alumni chapter.