User:Hillbillyholiday/Articles/Fred Baker (zoologist)

Frederick "Fred" Baker (29 January 1854 – 16 May 1938) was an American physician and amateur malacologist. Born in Norwalk, Ohio.

1870 Civil Engineering at Cornell University; M.D., University of Michigan in 1880.

Married Charlotte LeBreton Johnson, M.D., 1881.

Stanford Expedition to Brazil, 1911.

''President, City Council and Board of Education, San Diego, California. Honorary Curator, Scripps Inst.''

Collection at Scripps.

''Dr. Frederick Baker, Honorary Curator of Mollusks at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at La Jolla,

''From early boyhood to his death Baker's love of natural history was profound. Even his undergraduate course at Cornell was interrupted by extensive trips in Europe and Latin America, through all of which his broad naturalist proclivities were strongly to the fore.

''His contributions to natural knowledge as a researcher were limited to the mollusca, chiefly as a conchologist. In this field he is widely known for his addition to knowledge of the marine fauna of Pacific North America and to that of Brazil. His paper on the latter contained not only the descriptions of many new species, but important information on distribution and other ecological matters owing to his having done most of the collecting himself.

''Of his varied efforts in behalf of institutionalized science, Baker regarded his part in the founding and operating of what is now the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a division of the University of California, as the most important. And those who have had a hand in that enterprise readily acknowledge his service in that connection. His gift of a large, carefully chosen shell collection to the Institution will ever be of basic value to whatever work may be done there in this field.

''Finally no tribute to his memory would be complete without mention, however brief, of his ideas and activities in the realm of civics. These include years of service on the San Diego city council and board of education--part of the time as president of both--and on the board of the then State Normal School at San Diego. Whether as a prominent physician concerned with defective vision of a patient; or as a member of boards directing the affairs of the Society of Natural History, or of the Institution of Marine Biology; or as a member of the city council dealing with the water problem; or as a member of the board of education concerned with the question of the presidency of the board, his youthful interest in, and lifelong devotion to, natural history were potent factors in all his undertakings.

''Dr. Baker is survived by a daughter, Mary C. Baker, dean of women at Fresno State College, and by a son, Robert H. Baker, of San Diego. Mrs. Baker, the former Charlotte LeBreton Johnson, herself a well-known physician, died in San Diego a few months before her husband.

Hawaii

Donations to San Diego Natural History Museum. about 150 species of Hawaiian shells.

Baker died in San Diego, California in 1938 at the age of 84.

!

 * Solaropsis cearana (1914) Genus Solaropsis
 *  Neptunea kelseyi 1923 Family Buccinidae

Works
Other References: Bailey, J.R., Jr. 1938. Nautilus 52:64-66 + portrait.

Hertz, C.M. 1994. Dr. Fred Baker, San Diego conchologist - a most remarkable man. The Festivus 26(1):3-14.

Partial Bibliography:


 * Baker, F. (1913). The land and fresh-water mollusks of the Stanford Expedition to Brazil. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 65(3) pp. 618-672 + 7 plates.
 * Baker, F. (1928). Fresh Water Mollusca of Wisconsin (Bull. Wis. Geol. Nat. Hist. Surv., 70
 * Baker, F. (1928). Fresh Water Mollusca of Wisconsin (Bull. Wis. Geol. Nat. Hist. Surv., 70
 * Baker, F. (1928). Fresh Water Mollusca of Wisconsin (Bull. Wis. Geol. Nat. Hist. Surv., 70