Paul Brandon Barringer (February 13, 1857 – January 9, 1941) was an American physician and college administrator, the sixth president of Virginia Tech, serving from September 1, 1907 through July 1, 1913.

At the time, prior to the Great Migration, African Americans made up the majority of population in numerous counties, and he advocated a practice of racial eugenics.

He served the United States government for a few years during World War I by supervising public health in some mining towns.

Barringer was a nephew of Confederate Generals Stonewall Jackson and Daniel Harvey Hill who married his mother's sisters.

As an eight-year-old, the young Barringer beat Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis in a game of chess in 1865.

[3] Barringer continued his own research and published a variety of scientific papers dealing with cholera, syphilis, and typhoid fever.

Barringer rose to national prominence in 1900 after his presentation to the Tri-State Medical Association in Charleston, South Carolina, titled The American Negro: His Past and Future.

[5] (This was the period when southern states were disfranchising blacks, imposing Jim Crow laws, and passing one-drop rule that increased discrimination against persons of any African ancestry.)

His half-brother Warren Clay Coleman was ambitious and had established several businesses in Concord, North Carolina, likely with some financial assistance by his father.

Barringer, a gentleman farmer, was determined to develop the agricultural facet of the college until it achieved parity with the engineering component, which angered some faculty members and alumni who believed the institution needed to emphasize training for the emerging industrial society.

[11] In 1909, the Chairman of the Alumni Association Welfare Committee, Lawrence Priddy, tried unsuccessfully to have Barringer ousted by the Board of Visitors.

In the fall of 1911, the Board called for another investigation when a former Commandant of the Corps of Cadets accused Barringer of "countenancing immorality" on campus.

On 10 June 1912, Barringer tendered his resignation; the Board asked him to continue in office for another year until a new president could be selected.

[11] A year after Barringer's departure from V.P.I., the Smith–Lever Act of 1914 established a system of cooperative extension services, connected to the land-grant universities authorized by Congress.

[1] He had a few years of government service during World War I, when he supervised public health measures in American coal mining areas.