James L. Barker was born on July 27, 1880 in North Ogden. He was educated in the pubilc schools of Weber County and received a B.A. from the University of Utah in 1901. He served an LDS mission in Switzerland after graduation. He taught at Ogden High School from 1904-1906. He married Kate Montgomery in 1906. From 1907-1913 James was chairman of the Department of Modern Languages at Brigham Young University. From 1904-1913 he spent part or full time studying in Europe. In 1911 he received a "Licencie 'es Lettres" from the University of Neuchatel in Geneva, Switzerland. From 1914-1917 James was the principal of Weber Academy. He organized the school's first newspaper, the Weber Herald, and supervised the first college classes taught at Weber. From 1917-1946 he was the head of the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Utah. In the summer of 1922 he was a visiting professor of phonetics at the University of Chicago. From 1935-1936 he served in an advisory capacity with the U.S. Department of Immigration and Naturalization. James was served as President of the LDS Argentine Mission from 1942-1944, and the French Mission from 1946-1950. During his career he was the recipient of numerous awards and honors for his work in phonetics. From 1952-1958 he taught as an Emeritus Professor of Modern Languages at Brigham Young University and the University of Utah. He published several books on phonetics, as well as many books and articles on LDS history and theology. He was killed in an automobile accident on May 29, 1958.