Remembering Putnam Barber

1940–March 8, 2025
By Steven Rathgeb Smith, Former Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Nancy Bell Evans Professor of Public Affairs, UW

Putnam (Put) Barber, a longtime leader in the nonprofit and philanthropic community in Seattle and Washington State passed away unexpectedly on March 8, 2025. In his distinguished civic career, he served on many nonprofit boards of directors and was instrumental in crafting Washington State law pertaining to nonprofit organizations. Put was also dear friend, mentor and colleague to many nonprofit leaders, public officials, and community members who shared his abiding commitment to civic engagement, volunteerism, and good governance.

He was also actively engaged in supporting the nonprofit programming of the Evans School. Beginning in the late 1990s, Put was directly involved in supporting the Evans School as a co-host of the annual Washington Nonprofits conference. He also actively participated in the planning and implementation of the programming for the Nancy Bell Evans Center for Nonprofits & Philanthropy from 2004 to 2011. He taught a course on nonprofits and philanthropy at the Evans School and compiled an important annual report on the state of the nonprofit sector in Washington State.

Put was also an important nonprofit researcher. His articles on charitable solicitation and regulation include publications in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (NVSQ), Nonprofit Policy Forum, and Voluntas. He was also an important field-builder. He served as the NVSQ book editor from 2013-2016 and on the Advisory Board for NVSQ from 2000-2013. His many colleagues from the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) remember him for his kindness, passion, energy, and his constant willingness to reach out and support and encourage others.

Throughout his life, he was a model of a community-minded citizen dedicated to helping others. He will be dearly missed by his family, friends and colleagues and we extend our sincere condolences to Putnam’s family – his wife, Valerie, his daughter Lucy and his son Jasper. He requested that donations in his memory be given to Town Hall, Seattle or Haverford College.

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