Ed Barnes was already a committed member of the Pi Kappa Alpha family when he entered FSU as a freshman in 1970. His brother Charlie Barnes ’65 and his uncle, Chapter Advisor Ed Cubbon ’29 were deeply involved in leading the chapter toward prosperity.
Ed immediately demonstrated that he was a gifted organizer, especially adept at selling and rushing. His keen instincts toward the complex strategies of rush led him to create the first issue of Pikeboy(later Pikes Illustrated) in 1972.
Within the Greek community, Ed founded the IFC Escort Service and served as its director for two years. He was tapped for membership in The Order of Omega, and received the Ed Cubbon Award for leadership and outstanding devotion to the Fraternity.
His professional life ranged from medical sales (heart pacemakers) in Miami, to becoming a financial analyst in Dallas. It was this combination medical and financial background that eventually led him back to Tallahassee and his career with the State Agency for Health Care Administration.
While living in Dallas in the 1990s Barnes was recruited by local Pike alumni to try and save the miserable, failing Pike chapter at Southern Methodist University. The group had only 17 members and was the worst fraternity on campus.
The most immediate advice he gave them resulted in such remarkable success that they agreed to do everything he said if he would just give them direction. They started winning; they began growing. Within five years they won their first Robert Adger Smythe Award from Pike National.
Ed Barnes returned to Tallahassee in 1998, and in 2000 he was the obvious choice to become Colony Advisor and Chapter Advisor.
The need to raise money from alumni for a new house was immediate. “We had been off campus for a decade, and that our proud alumni were still feeling the sting of what happened years ago,” he said. “I knew that our alumni would only contribute to a chapter that looked like they remembered themselves to be: large, prominent and powerful.”
Ed Barnes’ genius was an unerring instinct for taking new, or even bad, chapters and building them to greatness along the fastest course possible. He resurrected the old Pikeboy, now in the form of Pikes Illustrated,to illustrate the ‘new’ Delta Lambda story in terms that alumni would recognize.
The Colony’s success was breathtaking; all the other fraternities were caught completely off guard. When they were installed in 2001, less then one year after establishment, Pike was the largest fraternity on campus, the Intramural Champions, had more varsity athletes than all the other fraternities combined and a cadre of student leaders including the Homecoming Chief, the Student Body Treasurer, and the Chief Justice of the Student Judicial Board.
In 2005, Pi Kappa Alpha National awarded Ed Barnes the honor of National Chapter Advisor of the Year.
Ed Barnes’ clear vision and relentless oversight were the reasons Pi Kappa Alpha’s dramatic return to FSU in 2000 was unprecedented in its immediate success and in its undergirding, enduring strength.
Charlie and Ed Barnes.