Howard R. Baker (1955–1983) in memoriam

Abstract

Howard Randall Baker, known to all his many friends and colleagues as Randy, was a big man in every sense of the word. Having completed his B.Sc. at the University of Victoria in 1977, he first joined my laboratory as a technician in February, 1978. We were immediately impressed by those characteristics that many came to know and admire, his basic decency, generosity of spirit and warm good humour. He also proved to be so adept at handling marine oligochaetes and so responsible with valuable material that he was admitted to a special course of study in oligochaete microstructure and eventually as an M.Sc. candidate in July, 1979. His work was supported by the Government of British Columbia and first Dobrocky Seatech Ltd. and then E.V.S. Consultants Ltd. of Vancouver. After a year of study he decided to devote his time to taxonomy rather than to the more applied aspects of the work, and obtained funding from the National Scientific and Engineering Research Council from June 1981 to June 1983. As early as April, 1981, the supervisory committee proposed that Randy had progressed so fast that his enrollment be upgraded to allow him to proceed directly to the Ph.D. degree, with the proviso that he gain experience through travel and work at centres outside Victoria. Accordingly, Randy planned and executed a tour of Europe that took him to laboratories from Ireland and England through Norway and Sweden. In 1982 he acted as station manager of the Smithsonian Institution field station at Carrie Bow Cay, Belize, and worked with the visiting scientists and on his own collections. He attended the first and second International Aquatic Oligochaete Symposia, extending his European travel experience. This travel was twice supported by University grants.