Obituaries of the members of The Ohio Academy Of Science report of the Necrology Committee, 2006

Ohio Journal of Science, The, Dec, 2006 by William R. Burk

The Necrology Committee of The Ohio Academy of Science, chaired since 1992 by Historian-Archivist Ronald L. Stuckey, consists of William R. Burk, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC; Christopher Cumo, Canton, OH; and Relda E. Niederhofer, Firelands College of Bowling Green State University, Huron, OH. The committee also expresses its gratitude to the following individuals and institutions for providing information: Bobbi Bishop; Connie S. Crawford, Senior Advancement Specialist, Ohio Northern University; Barbara L. Floyd, Director and University Archivist, Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections, University of Toledo; Angela Gooden, Head, Geology-Mathematics-Physics Library, Kevin Grace, Head and University Archivist, Archives and Rare Books Library, and Warren Huff, Associate Professor of Geology, Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati; Thomas Richard Gottschang, Worcester, MA; John Craig Gottschang, Sawtee, CA; Carol Kocher; Heidi Hetzel-Evans, Public Information, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Natural Areas and Preserves, Columbus, OH; Sandy Kull, City of Lancaster, Cemetery Department, Lancaster, OH; Bea Larsen, Cincinnati, OH; Bruce Leach, Head Librarian, Biological/Pharmacy Library, Raimund E. Goerler, University Archivist and Professor, Bertha L. Ihnat, Library Associate, University Archives, Nancy H. Rogers, Dean, Moritz School of Law, The Ohio State University; Laura Jones, The Ohio Department of Natural Resources; Nancy McDonald, Xavier University; Beth Elyse Popich, Milford, OH; Mindla Rosen, Infection Control Services, Inc., Columbus, OH; Mary-Louise Russell, Columbus, OH; Scott Sanders, University Archivist, Antiochiana, Olive Kettering Library, Antioch College; Charlotte Shaffer, Toledo, OH; Elizabeth Weinstock; Dr. Glenda Wickstrom, Medical Director, Geriatric Services, The Center for Healthy Aging, Billings, MT; Ruth Davidson, Columbus, OH; and Jennifer K. Nieves, Archivist-Registrar, Dittrick Medical History Center, Allen Medical Library, Cleveland, OH. The Academy office files may contain additional published and unpublished information on the deceased members treated in this report.

The committee is seeking volunteers to provide information or to write obituaries on deceased members of the Academy whose obituaries have not yet been written for The Ohio Journal of Science. Please contact The Ohio Academy of Science if you can assist in this effort. A two-page outline of instructions for preparation on obituaries in The Ohio Journal of Science, written by Ronald L. Stuckey, is available from the author or the Academy office.

The following is a list of deceased members of the Academy with the year joined and date of death, if known, whose obituaries have not yet been published in the Journal.

NAME                                DATE OF DEATH       YEAR JOINED

John B. Brown                       17 February 2003        1954
Jane Forsyth                        19 September 2006       1952
Isaac Knoll                         11 July 2005            1964
Irving Mayer                        25 March 2004           1959
Edward Eugene Slowter                5 June 2006            1971

The following obituaries appear in the 2006 report:

Harley Ellsworth Baker, Jr. (1907-2005)
Robert Cahill Baumiller (1931-2006)
Clayton Wayne Ellett (1916-2006)
Donald Emerson Geist (1905-2006)
Jack Louis Gottschang (1923-2005)
Leonard Hills Larsen (1924-2002)
Earl Finbar Murphy (1928-2006)
John Zanger Pelton (1915-2006)
Samuel Rosen (1923-2006)
Fred Theodore Russell, Jr. (1921-2006)
Harold Charles Shaffer (1914-2005)
Robert Weinstock (1919-2006)
Conrad Eugene Wickstrom (1943-2006)

WILLIAM R. BURK, ACTING CHAIR

HARLEY ELLSWORTH BAKER, JR. (1907-2005)

Harley Ellsworth Baker, age 97, former newspaper carrier and naturalist, died 8 April 2005 at the home of a friend in Sugar Grove (Fairfield County), OH, of acute renal failure. The Wheaton Club, an organization comprised of field naturalists in central Ohio, honored Baker as its Member of the Year (1988) for his contributions to natural science. Joining The Ohio Academy of Science in 1980, he affiliated in Section Anthropology/Sociology and became a life member.

Born 28 December 1907 in Uniontown (Stark County), OH, Harley Ellsworth Baker, Jr. was the son of Harley Ellsworth Sr. and Sarah Josephine (Stambaugh) Baker. In 1913 the family moved to Lancaster, OH, where young Baker attended public schools for four years. He then completed his elementary education in a one-room school and graduated from Crawfis High School (1925). After attending Fairfield County Normal School (1925-1926) in Lancaster, Baker taught grades five through eight at Hamburg Elementary School (1926-1927) in Fairfield County. He matriculated at Ohio University (1927-1930), but fifty-two years intervened until he completed his B.S. in education (1982) with a major in biological sciences.

When Baker left OU, he started a newspaper route that developed into a successful business. The venture eventually consisted of a number of trucks that delivered not only newspapers but also wholesale auto parts to 23 towns in central and southeastern Ohio. He maintained the delivery routes until his retirement in January 1970 with the exception of serving in the United States Navy during World War II. His military service included duty on the light carrier Savannah as a radar operator in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.