TIFFIN — David Bruce Baker, a scientist who founded Heidelberg University’s renowned National Center for Water Quality Research in Tiffin, died Friday at his home of pneumonia. He was 84.
A pioneer in the field of documenting the effects of agricultural nutrients on soil health and water quality, Mr. Baker’s research laid the groundwork for what agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have used in recent years to predict the chronic growth of harmful algal blooms, or HABs, in Lake Erie and other bodies of water across Ohio and Michigan.
The lab he founded contains the longest set of continuing water quality samples in the Great Lakes region, dating back to 1974. One of the most important is the station it monitors near Waterville, to see how much algae-forming phosphorus and nitrogen is flowing down the Maumee River, Lake Erie’s largest tributary.
Heidelberg President Rob Huntington called Mr. Baker “an environmental pioneer.”
“In so many ways, Dave was a very generous, always kind, and soft-spoken man,” Mr. Huntington wrote in a letter.
Mr. Baker is mentioned prominently in a 250-page online book about the lab.
He technically retired in 1999, but continued writing scientific papers on at least a part-time basis up until his death.
Laura Johnson, the lab’s current director, told The Blade she visited with him only days before he died, and that he was insistent on him taking notes he had generated and finishing a couple of scientific papers he was in the process of writing.
“I don't think he ever saw anything at the lab as work,” Ms. Johnson said. “I think he saw it as who he was.”
She said she was originally hired as a research scientist in the fall of 2012, and was impressed how much he encouraged her and other newcomers to the lab.
“From the very get-go, he always involved me in everything,” Ms. Johnson said. “That was the thing that kept him going, the data.”
Mr. Baker was nominated this year for a lifetime achievement award from the International Association for Great Lakes Research, the region’s largest group of Great Lakes scientists. An announcement is pending.
Rick Stumpf, a NOAA oceanographer based in Washington in charge of western Lake Erie’s algal bloom forecasts, is one of several scientists who have nominated Mr. Baker for the award.
He said today’s Lake Erie bloom forecasts, now used as a model for predicting algal bloom outbreaks in other parts of the country, would have been impossible “without the water quality monitoring program that Dave established.”
“Dave was a wonderful collaborator,” Mr. Stumpf said. “He sparkled with dedication and enthusiasm. When I first approached Dave in 2011 for help in trying to forecast the Lake Erie blooms, we didn’t know each other; but he dove into helping me. He clarified nutrient data, answered questions, and made it work. And that started a long collaboration with Dave and Heidelberg, phenomenal sources of expertise and data.”
In his nomination letter, Jeff Reutter, retired Ohio Sea Grant and Ohio State University Stone Laboratory director, told IAGLR the half-century of field data generated by the Heidelberg lab Mr. Baker created is “the most, or one of the most, valuable datasets on nutrient loading in the world” and that it allows the Great Lakes scientific community “to be a leader in understanding the drivers for nutrient loading and harmful algal blooms - issues that have become global problems.”
Tom Bridgeman, University of Toledo Lake Erie Center director, called Mr. Baker the “father of tributary monitoring.”
“Starting the tributary monitoring program as early as he did and keeping it going to this day was an extraordinary feat,” Mr. Bridgeman said. But he wasn’t as interested in past accomplishments as he was in answering the next important scientific question. He keep that curiosity and drive throughout his life.”
R. Peter Richards, a former director of the Heidelberg lab, said Mr. Baker “was a creative thinker whose mind was never at rest.”
Doug Kane, a Heidelberg assistant professor of biology and a research scientist at the lab, said he “always found it amazing that Dave Baker was able to build a program of high international reputation at a small undergraduate institution whose focus is teaching undergraduate students.”
“His never-ending enthusiasm, dedication to science, and attention to detail was an inspiration to me and others who had the privilege and good fortune to meet and have been able to work with him,” Andrew Sharpley, a University of Arkansas distinguished crop, soil, and environmental sciences professor emeritus, said.
Mr. Baker returned on occasion to serve as the lab’s interim director.
It was created in 1969 as River Laboratory, then renamed the Water Quality Laboratory in 1974.
It got its current name following passage of a U.S. House of Representatives resolution in 2004.
“Dave will be missed, but we can remember him in our words, actions, and efforts. We should all strive for the level of passion Dave had for Lake Erie and the importance of rigorous science. We should also share Dave’s compassion for our students and those living and working the in the Lake Erie watershed,” Chris Winslow, the current Ohio Sea Grant-OSU Stone Lab director, said.
Mr. Baker was a member of the Ohio Academy of Sciences. He once chaired a Sandusky River symposium for the International Joint Commission, a State Department-level agency that helps the United States and Canada resolve common boundary issues.
He was born on May 29, 1936 in Akron, to Mary and Arlus Baker.
A 1954 Suffield High School graduate, Mr. Baker attended Heidelberg College, now Heidelberg University, graduating in 1958 with a bachelor’s degree in biology.
He then got his doctorate in botany from the University of Michigan in 1963, followed by a year of postdoctoral research in Tubingen, Germany and two years of teaching at Rutgers University.
Mr. Baker returned to Tiffin in 1966 to teach at Heidelberg.
“He was a naturalist with very good causes,” his wife of 61 years, Margaret Baker, said. “He was a very good father and good husband.”
Mr. Baker was a member of First Presbyterian Church, Tiffin, and sang in Heidelberg Community Chorus.
Survivors include his wife, Margaret Baker; his son, Mark Baker; daughters, Sarah Jome and Susan Cramer; brother, James Baker; sister, Judith Calcei, and seven grandchildren.
Services are at 11 a.m. Saturday at First Presbyterian Church, Tiffin, immediately following an hour-long visitation. The service will be streamed live on the church’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fpctiffin. Arrangements are by Hoffmann-Gottfried-Mack Funeral Home & Crematory.
The family suggests tributes to Heidelberg’s National Center for Water Quality Research, First Presbyterian Church, the Franciscan Earth Literacy Center, Habitat for Humanity, the Ritz Players, or a charity of the donor’s choice.
First Published April 20, 2021, 4:00 a.m.
