Iowa State University Alumni Association| online edition | spring 2006
Barb Burnett

 


SPRING 2006
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>>The 20 Most Ingriguing People on Campus

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Unlikely warrior

After a day of classes in marriage and family therapy, Scott Bair hurries home to his wife and young children.
Then he dons his suit of armor, grabs his weapons, and returns to campus.

A Ph.D. student in marriage and family therapy, Bair is a counselor, teacher, father, medieval costuming enthusiast, and a member of a medieval combat society on campus.

When he meets his friends and fellow members of the combat society, the area in front of Parks Library is transformed into a battlefield. Only the “weapons” are made of foam.

In college, Bair’s interests in medieval history and costuming collided, and he began to build a collection of medieval Halloween costumes. When he came to
ISU in 2001 to work on his doctorate, Bair met others through the medieval combat society who shared his interests, and his costuming really took off.

“People in the group wanted to make costumes,” Bair said. “I was interested in armor for a long time. I was always fascinated with knights, so when I met a guy at the medieval society with a chain mail shirt, I asked him about it. It had never occurred to me that you could make this stuff.”

Bair purchased stainless steel rings online by the thousand and worked on a chain mail shirt every spare moment: linking rings together on the bus or while waiting for a meeting. Since the rings are only about half the size of a penny, the shirt now has about 35,000 links and weighs 35 pounds. It cost about $300 and took more than a year to make.

At ages 2, 4, and 6, the Bair children love playing with Daddy’s costumes. The next project: a child-size chain mail shirt.

-- M. Kalkhoff

Read on | Renaissance man