John Barringer, the founder of the store now known as Park Road Books, died on July 17, 2025, at the age of ninety. John’s lasting impact on Charlotte’s literary community began in 1977 when he opened the Little Professor Book Center in the Park Road Shopping Center. In August of 1999, Sally Brewster joined the store, and they changed the name to Park Road Books. Sally bought the store from John in 2003, after which John officially retired.
John’s retirement did not mean that his involvement in the world of books was over. Working as a volunteer, he helped create Julia’s Café & Books as part of the Habitat for Humanity of the Charlotte Region’s ReStore at 1144 N. Wendover Road. John was also a collector of rare and signed books. In 2012, he donated these books to the Queens University of Charlotte Special Collections. Now known as the John Barringer Book Collection, these books are on display in the mezzanine of the Everett Library on the campus of Queens University.
I first met John shortly after I moved to Charlotte in 1984. I quickly became a regular customer at Little Professor. When the name changed to Park Road Books, I kept calling the store Little Professor out of habit. I often talked with John about our shared commitment to resisting censorship. I remember John telling me that as a former Lutheran minister, he did not always personally like the values represented in all of the books that he sold in the store, but he believed that his store should include a wide range of books representing a wide range of viewpoints. He told me once about a customer who demanded that he remove a particular young adult novel from the store because she thought the book was “sinful,” but he refused to stop selling the book.
John and I also shared an interest in children’s books, and he made sure that the store was welcoming to children. After my wife and I became parents, we often brought our young son to the store. Together, we enjoyed checking out the new picture books. Many of these picture books came home with us.
John was very involved with the Dilworth Rotary Club. In 2020 the club invited me to give a talk about the importance of children’s literature and literacy at one of their meetings, and John introduced me. In an email that he sent to me before the meeting, he wrote, “I fondly recall your visits to the bookstore where you always brought your son.” I fondly recall those days, too.
Like many other book lovers, I will long remember John and his many contributions to Storied Charlotte.