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Joseph W. Barr was born Jan. 17, 1918 in Vincennes, Indiana. In 1939, he graduated from DePauw University. He earned a Master's degree in economics from Harvard University in 1941.
From 1942-1945 Barr served in the U.S. Navy with sub chaser duty in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. He received a Bronze Star for sinking a submarine off Anzio Beach.
After the war, Barr worked in the operation of grain elevators, theaters, real estate, and publishing businesses. He was elected as a Democrat to the 86th U.S. Congress from 1959-1961. He lost the 1960 election and was appointed assistant for congressional relations to the U.S. Secretary of Treasury and then in 1963 he was appointed Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation - FDIC.
He was Undersecretary of the Treasury from 1965-1968, during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, and U.S. Secretary of Treasury from 1968 to 1969. The shortest term of any Secretary. Because of this, U.S. currency bearing his signature is said by some to be rare and hard to find. This is, for the most part, false.
From 1969-1974, Barr was Chairman of the American Security and Trust Company. From 1977-1981, he was Chairman of Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta. Joseph W. Barr died in 1996 in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
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