Retired "Price is Right" host Bob Barker recently returned to his alma mater, Drury University, to give a $1 million gift for the establishment of the Dorothy Jo Barker Endowed Professorship of Animal Rights, named in honor of Barker's late wife, The Drury Mirror reported. Barker had previously donated $1 million to the Springfield, Mo. school to establish an animal rights course, making the school the first undergraduate institution to offer a multi-disciplinary course on animal ethics. The endowed professorship will allow this program to grow, according to Dr. Patricia McEachern, director of the Drury University forum on animal rights. The university will use this endowment to eventually establish an entire program devoted to animal rights studies. "The goal is evolving, and the hope is to eventually establish a major program," McEachern said. Barker, a 1947 graduate of Drury University, said he believes this marks the beginning of a new era in the teaching of animal rights. "What we're doing here today is something they will be talking about all over the country," Barker said.

(The Drury Mirror, October 28, 2009)

(http://www.drurymirror.com/…)