Dr Robert D. Baker

Dr. Robert "Bob" Baker, 90, of Bryan passed away on Monday, December 11, 2017 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bryan, from complications related to a previous surgery. Visitation will be from 5-8 PM on Friday, December 15, 2017 at Hillier Funeral Home of Bryan. Life Celebration Services will continue at 11 AM on Saturday, December 16, 2017 at First Presbyterian Church of Bryan with burial to follow at Sunset Memorial Park in Nacogdoches, Texas at 4 PM.

Bob was born on December 7, 1927, in Chico, California, but spent most of his childhood with his grandparents in the small town of Weaverville in Northern California. Weaverville is a historic California Gold Rush town once home to some 2,000 Chinese gold miners. After the gold panned out (and gold mining no longer did), the town’s population declined; logging became the main source of employment for the 500 residents in the 1920s and 1930s when Bob lived there. “Growing up in the woods,” Bob says, is what drew him to a career in forestry.

He moved to Berkeley in the third grade and to Washington, D.C. in the mid-1940s. In 1946, he was drafted into the Army Air Force shortly after World War II ended. He left the military in 1947 as a corporal. After the war, Bob entered the University of California, obtaining an A.A. in general curriculum followed by both a B.S.F. and M.S. in forestry. He followed in the footsteps of his stepfather, a Berkeley forestry grad who worked for the U. S. Forest Service. In 1957, Bob received his Ph.D. in forest valuation from the State University of New York. He joined the forestry faculty at Stephen F. Austin State College (now SFASU) as an assistant professor in 1956, rising through the ranks to an associate professor in 1959 and to full professor in 1970.

Shortly after he arrived in Nacogdoches, Bob became attracted to a local girl, Mary Ann Brooks, the administrative secretary at the School of Forestry. She would become Bob’s wife in 1958, even before he owned his first car. Bob likes to say “I married my chauffeur.” She was quite a catch.

Meanwhile, Bob continued to teach courses in aerial photograph interpretation and remote sensing at SFA. From 1970 to 1974, he had a joint appointment with SFA and the Department of Forest Sciences, before joining Texas A&M full time beginning in 1975. In 2000, after an additional 25 years at Texas A&M, he retired from the Department of Forest Science (now called the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management), but not before serving twice as interim department head. As Professor Emeritus, he returned to his book-lined office almost daily and served as visiting professor until 2003.

The Bakers have one daughter and two grandchildren. Their daughter Allison, an attorney, lives with her husband James Michael “Mike” Waters in Mission Hills, Kansas. Both are graduates of Texas A&M. They have two children, Jack and Julianne.

Most Texas-educated forestry graduates can recall taking classes in aerial photo interpretation and remote sensing from Bob during his long tenures at SFA or TAMU. Over the decades, he has maintained his buzz haircut, his friendly personality… and his sense of humor. According to former TAMU forestry professor and TFA member Mike Messina, “Bob could always be counted upon to say humorous one-liners about certain things.  When traveling in a car with him, whenever we'd pass a sign that said "Plant Entrance", Bob would say, "stomata."  It didn't matter if we passed five such signs on the same trip, it was always "stomata."

In a forest valuation and finance class he took from Bob at SFA, TFS retiree and TFA member Joe Pase recalls Bob once returned results of a test to Joe with the remark to the class “Joe made the highest grade in the class, but it doesn't necessarily reflect what he knows." Bob had a reputation for a cluttered desk and meticulous record keeping, too. The author’s daughter Susie, who worked as a word processing operator in the TAMU Department of Forestry when Bob was on the faculty, once observed “Dr. Baker is so conscientious - he makes a copy of everything he throws away.”

Dr. Baker was a strong supporter of and contributor to forest history in Texas, and is author of numerous scientific and technical articles. Indeed, his voluminous resume contains 25 pages of published articles, reports, short courses, testimonials on forestry issues, and consulting assignments. In the early 1980s, he collaborated with Robert S. Maxwell at SFA to co-author the historical book The Sawdust Empire: The Texas Lumber Industry, 1830 to 1940.

Bob was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Bryan, where he was also an Elder. He was also a member of Kiwanis International, having served as President and Director of the College Station Kiwanis Club and Lt. Governor for the Texas-Oklahoma District. Bob was a dedicated fan of former Texas A&M quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel and recorded all of his games. He was also a long time Dallas Cowboys football fan, and used to kid his daughter Allison by telling her that former coach Tom Landry wasn’t the coach but instead, a well-dressed fan on the sidelines.

As a recognized expert on forest taxation and valuation, Dr. Baker perhaps is best remembered with gratitude for his key testimony on May 31, 1979 before the Texas State Legislature which was largely responsible for the passage of H. B. 1060. This bill provided much-needed tax relief for forest landowners, taxing their timberland on use-value of trees, not current property value. Bob was honored for his impressive contributions to forestry by nomination and acceptance into the Texas Forestry Museum’s Texas Forestry Hall of Fame in 2003.

Dr. Baker is predeceased by his parents, Fred and Wilma (Vitzthum Baker) Grover. He leaves behind his beloved wife and best friend of 59 years, Mary Ann; daughter and son-in-law, Allison and Mike Waters, of Mission Hills, Kansas; grandchildren, Jack and Julianne, also of Mission Hills, Kansas; brother and sister-in-law, Dr. Fred L. and Carol Grover of Denver, Colorado; nephews, Drs. Fred and Theresa Grover and Richard and Christin Grover, both of Denver, Colorado, and numerous extended family members, friends, students, and colleagues.

Former colleagues and close friends will be serving as honorary pallbearers at Dr. Baker’s service including, Dr. Henry Dethloff, George Allen Lea, Dr. George McBee, Dr. Murray Milford, and Dr. Peter Witt. His former students from the 1960s and 70s will serve as pallbearers, including Dr. R. Scott Beasley, Herschel Fields, Dr. Grant C. Gaumer, James B. Hull, Jr., Noel J. Kennedy, and E. Leon Levens.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Dr. Baker’s honor be made to either the Texas Forestry Museum, 1905 Atkinson Dr. Lufkin, Texas 75901 (www.treetexas.com) or First Presbyterian Church of Bryan, Texas (www.fpcbryan.org).