Guy Baseler Baird

Guy Baseler Baird of Pittsboro NC, died peacefully at the UNC hospice in on June 13, 2020. He was 97 years old. He was born on January 4, 1923, on a small farm in Newland, North Carolina in 1923. After he graduated from high school, he attended Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, North Carolina State University. His education was interrupted by World War II, during which he spent three years in Europe with the U.S. Army, working as an officer in a medical battalion.  After the war, he attended Cornell University, where he received his Ph.D in Agronomy. While at Cornell, he met and married a fellow grad student, Betty Jane Brooks. After his graduation he was employed by the Rockefeller Foundation’s Agricultural Research Country Programs and he and Betty spent two decades in Colombia, South America and in India, helping those countries (and many others) in their efforts to become agriculturally self-sufficient. During his time overseas he and Betty had three children, Jeffrey, Joel, and Jane. In 1971 the family returned to the United States when Guy became the International Agricultural Specialist with USAID in Washington, D.C. A few years later, he and Betty moved to New York City, where he worked for the International Agricultural Research Service (IADS). Betty died of cancer in 1981.

IADS subsequently moved to Washington D.C. where Guy met Ingrid Edick. In 1984 they were married. Guy and Ingrid spent three years in India where he worked on another agricultural assistance project. Guy retired in 1989 and he and Ingrid moved to Fearrington Village in Pittsboro, NC. They lived there together for more than 30 years. Guy is survived by Ingrid Baird, his sister Jean Lutz, his children Jeffrey, Joel, and Jane, his step-daughter Joanne Hawkins, six grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and dozens of loving members of his extended family.  A memorial service will be scheduled at a later time. Memorial gifts can be made to UNC Hospice online at go.unc.edu/unchospice or by mail to Medical Foundation of NC, 123 West Franklin Street, Suite 510, Chapel Hill NC 27516, or online through the Medical Foundation of North Carolina.