HLS has received bigger contributions but not from anyone more recognized around the world. In June, Bob Barker, the host of the popular game show The Price Is Right, presented Dean Robert Clark ’72 with a check for $500,000 to support the study of animal rights at the School. The Bob Barker Endowment Fund will help pay for courses, seminars, and research on animal rights law, which was taught for the first time at HLS in spring 2000. Pearson Television, the producers of The Price Is Right, funded the endowment in honor of Barker’s 30 years hosting the show.
That longevity has inspired a legion of fans for Barker, an animal rights advocate who always signs off the air with a plea for viewers to spay and neuter their pets. Posing for photos with Dean Clark near Pound Hall, Barker caught the attention of a group of visitors from Hong Kong. One of them, mimicking the catch phrase that has catapulted thousands of exuberant game show contestants to center stage, cried out, “Come on down!”