Remembering Dave Baker

When young college instructor Dave Baker found himself back at his alma mater a few years after graduation, he didn't know he would leave behind 50 years of water quality data before he died at age 84. Baker died April 16. He graduated from Heidelberg in 1958, and in 1966 joined the staff of the Biology Department. Within the first few years, he got the idea of enhancing the classwork of his biology students by sampling water in the Sandusky River. As students tested samples Baker began to notice interesting results, and he decided to expand the studies. Those early samples steadily grew into the Water Quality Lab when the college agreed to provide some funding. But little did Baker know at the time that his ideas would grow to become the National Center for Water Quality Research and the data collected over years would become the benchmark for water quality studies nationwide. Baker's friends, colleagues and co-workers found it challenging to summarize his life in only a few words. "He was a man of many dimensions and many accomplishments," said Ken Krieger, Baker's friend and colleague for 43 years. "It took 238 pages for biology professor, Dr. Ken Baker, to present Dr. Dave Baker's accomplishments and those of the research laboratory that Dave founded, in his excellent and comprehensive book titled, 'The National Center for Water Quality Research at Heidelberg University 1969-2019,'" Krieger said in the eulogy he delivered at a memorial service last weekend. "In the tributes to Dave during this past week, one reads such attributes as — patient, kind, generous, soft-spoken, faithful, well loved, encouraging, inspirational, passionate and compassionate, sparkling with dedication and never-ending enthusiasm, dedicated to science, wonderful collaborator, attentive to detail, internationally respected, creative thinker whose mind never rested," Krieger said. "Can one man have all of these attributes? Dave did." Krieger remembers him as a scientist-educator, a man of faith and a citizen of Tiffin and the greater community. "As a scientist-educator, Dave's professional network was expansive, extending from multinational to local agencies and to university scientists and public policymakers throughout the Great Lakes region and overseas," Krieger said. "I would also describe Dave as visionary. He was always looking at the big research picture and would often approach the lab staff with the question, 'What if …?' The staff knew that 'What if' really meant 'We should' and that we'd be adding a new project to the already-full water chemistry sampling schedule. But I believe it was Dave's vision that enabled the NCWQR to thrive and expand into additional research areas over the decades." He said Baker was persistent, and continue writing about his work and maintaining professional contacts until two weeks before his death. Krieger said Baker's life outside of the lab focused on church and community. "For five decades (at least), Dave sang in the back row of the choir," he said. "Perhaps because Dave was an alumnus of the Heidelberg Concert Choir, he was always on pitch and was a quick sight-reader. He and his wife, Peg, also were involved in other church activities as well as volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, Franciscan Earth Literacy Center and taking part in other community activities. "To summarize, it may be an understatement to say that Dave lived an exceptional life," Krieger said. "He was a pillar in his profession, in his church and in the community. He had a way of making his lab staff and friends feel like part of his extended family." Laura Johnson, director of the National Center for Water Quality Research, expressed her personal memories of Baker in a blog post called "A Farewell to our Founder," which was posted Monday. "Dave Baker will forever be missed, but is also our constant inspiration to do more and always ask 'I wonder if …' As long as the NCWQR continues to exist, so does the spirit of Dave Baker," Johnson said. She described him as "remarkably humble" and "stalwart about the findings in the data." Because of "tireless work" promoting the lab and its results, Johnson said the lab's work is well known and data is being used to assess water quality progress is many scientific projects. "Because of these activities and our broad network of colleagues, our funding has been ample since I've been director and we are currently at the cusp of two new, potentially decade-long projects," she said. "I'm pleased to say that it doesn't appear that activities at the NCWQR will be slowing anytime soon. Hence, the spirit of Dave Baker, his original ideas on how to monitor watersheds and communicate those results, lives on through each of us at the NCWQR and we intend to sample on." Baker also helped to found the Sandusky River Watershed Coalition, a grassroots organization dedicated to bringing together representatives of the many activities that affect the river's water quality. "Dave was a great person and an amazing mentor. He shared with me so much and was also always willing to listen and flush out ideas," said Cindy Brookes, senior rural development specialist with Great Lakes Community Action Partnership and former coordinator of the watershed coalition. "Dave's passion for his research has helped more people than we will ever realize. I feel blessed to have been able to have known and been able to learn from his immense knowledge of water quality." Current watershed coordinator Jakob Boehler also is a research assistant at the center. "I know for myself and many others that have worked in the lab over the years it was Dave's vision and leadership that helped drive us to always strive to do better and take on new projects, even if it meant some extra work," Boehler said. "I wanted to specifically say that without Dave's vision and leadership the Sandusky River Watershed Coalition would not be what it is today. It was through Dave that the SRWC got started and I know that he considered it very important to get the community involved in the watershed. "Dave also understood the importance of bringing all the pertinent parties to the table to work together toward solving our local water quality issues, which is a big part of what the SRWC still tries to do today," he said. "Dave will certainly be missed." And Baker's students also remember him fondly. "I often wonder where I'd be at in life right now if it wasn't for Dave Baker. It was the lab he founded and the resulting water resources major that led me to Heidelberg," said Sara (Creque) Thomas, 1999 Heidelberg graduate in water resources and environmental biology, who now is Lake Erie unit manager for Michigan Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Division. In college, she worked in the water quality lab. She remembered Baker as quiet man who always had time to answer student worker questions. "I remember watching him fly around the YMCA track with his speed walking during tennis practice and wondering if I could even run that fast," she said. After college, Thomas said she often ran into Baker at professional meetings long after his retirement. "He was still so engaged and interested in asking and answering more questions related to the Lake Erie phosphorus puzzle," she said. "He always had time for a chat. … Dr. Baker is a reminder of just how much on-the-job experience and a desire to look deeper can matter. He didn't go to school for water quality, but look what he accomplished. "More than 20 years after graduating, I still beam with pride at professional meetings when the Heidelberg lab and/or dataset is mentioned, and that all goes back to Dave," she said.