The College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) mourns the passing of John Baldwin, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of chemistry.
Remembered as a dynamic scholar of physical organic chemistry, Baldwin was a pioneer in utilizing density functional theory to gain insight into chemical bonding and reaction mechanisms. He published more than 150 articles over the course of his career, and continued to publish important works up until his retirement, including articles in the Journal of Physical Organic Chemistry (2014), the Journal of Organic Chemistry (2008) and the Journal of the American Chemical Society (2006).
A Promising Beginning
John Baldwin
Baldwin was born in 1937 in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Oak Park, Pennsylvania. According to his obituary, he was an exceedingly well-rounded student, excelling in many sports and becoming valedictorian of his high school class at Oak Park and River Forest High School in 1955. He continued both his studies and his athleticism at Dartmouth College, participating on the ski, lacrosse and track teams, and once again becoming valedictorian of his class in 1959. He earned his doctorate in physics and chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in 1963.
Baldwin began his career as an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he was recognized through an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, associate membership of the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. He soon transitioned to the University of Oregon as a full professor, where he spent 16 years. Baldwin then joined Syracuse University’s chemistry department as the William R. Kenan Jr. Endowed Professor of Science in 1984, where he was to spend the next 40, very productive years.
From the start of his career, Baldwin developed a reputation for excellence, as a scholar and researcher, but also interpersonally; he was a generous collaborator, teacher and mentor. Baldwin became known for successfully addressing highly challenging questions regarding organic reactions by applying rigorous methods with exacting measurements and careful analysis, and by combining the experimental work with molecular computations.
This work, as well as its history and development, was summarized by Baldwin himself in a seminal Chemical Reviews (2003) article. A collaborator recently was quoted as saying, “When John’s illness prevented him from communicating his creative thoughts about reaction mechanisms and science more broadly, a large hole was created in the field of physical organic chemistry, a hole that no one has since been able to fill. He has been irreplaceable.” Another colleague says, “Having been impressed and amazed by John’s published work, I was excited to start my career in the same department. John was always a treasured colleague, both for his expertise and for his personal approach, always with caring, kindness and friendship.”
Baldwin was instrumental in bringing the Life Sciences Complex project to fruition.
Baldwin’s service to the field and the University were extensive. He served on the President’s Science Advisory Committee; the Medicinal Chemistry Study Section of the National Institutes of Health; the National Science Foundation’s Chemistry Division Standing Review Panel; the executive committee of the American Chemical Society Division of Organic Chemistry; and the Advisory Board of the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society. He received the American Chemical Society’s James Flack Norris Award in 2010, as well as awards from the John Simon Guggenheim and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundations.
In addition to his teaching and research, he led Syracuse University’s chemistry department as chair for many years and played a pivotal role in the lobbying for the Life Sciences Complex, which opened in 2008. Baldwin contributed to the facility’s ultimate design, resulting in all new teaching labs and research space for chemistry. He received the Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence, was awarded a Distinguished Professor title, and graduated more than 10 Syracuse University Ph.D. students from his lab before retiring and earning emeritus status in 2014. His graduate students remember him as a thoughtful listener and a mentor whose gentle and respectful manner fostered their development.
Baldwin’s interests were broad, including history, music, philosophy and foreign languages; he spoke Russian, Swedish and German. He was known for taking a genuine and deep interest in the vocations of his friends, regardless of industry. He served on the board of the Chamber Music Society and supported the Society for New Music in Syracuse; he and his wife, Anne, hosted concerts in their home. He relished any professional and personal opportunity to travel and held visiting professor appointments at Heidelberg, Munich and Hamburg, Germany; Krakow, Poland; Stockholm and Göteborg, Sweden; and at his alma mater, Cal Tech.
Baldwin is survived by his wife, as well as children Claire Miller Baldwin (husband Ferdinand von Muench), John Nordlander Baldwin (late wife Daphne Berdahl-Baldwin) and Wesley Hale Baldwin (wife Melisa Barrick Baldwin); his grandchildren, Carrie von Muench (husband Shankara Anand), Sophie von Muench, Audrey Berdahl-Baldwin, Eloise Berdahl-Baldwin, Jack Baldwin, Ella Baldwin, Poppy Baldwin and Maisie Baldwin; his sister, Martha Baldwin Swanson, and many nieces and nephews.
Story by Lesley Porcelli
