Larry Baack

Profile Updated: November 8, 2022
Residing In: Berkeley, CA USA
Spouse/Partner: Jane E. Baack
Occupation: Retired University Professor (European Historian), Corporate Executive, also Community Work
Children: Jim, born 1969, Sally, born 1970
Military Service: Officer, U.S. Navy  
Yes! Attending Reunion
Comments:

I attended Cal where I was a History major and ran Track (440, 880) under the great Olympic Coach Brutus Hamilton. I met my wife, Jane, in a History Class, and we got married right after Graduation. I was on a Navy scholarship and was commissioned upon graduation. I graduated with Honors and Phi Beta Kappa.I had three tours to Vietnam and made the first landings at Da Nang in March 1965, and many landings up and down the coast after that. We also established one of the first River Patrol Units down on the Mekong Delta, the Bassac, by the Cambodian Border. Awarded standard decorations for service in the War plus the Navy Achievement Medal and The Presidential Unit Citation both for service on the Delta. Then assigned to the Naval Amphibious School, Coronado in the Special Operations Department as an Instructor in Counter Insurgent Warfare. After the navy I went to Stanford for Graduate School and got my Ph.D. in History. By then Jane and I had two children, Jim and Sally. After Stanford I joined the History Department at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. I taught European History with an emphasis on Modern Germany, Scandinavia and International Relations. I was promoted, granted Tenure and became Vice Chairman of the Department. I published two books and a number of academic articles In 1979 I was selected as the Antarctic Fellow for the United States Antarctic Research Program,and went to the Antarctic as part of a research project. I participated in the first major exploration of the Ellsworth Mountains, the highest in Antarctica. I had always had a secondary interest in the Antarctic. Upon my return from the ice I was offered a position as the Director of Education for PG&E and we decided to return to the Bay Area. Jane is from Palo Alto and our summer home was in Inverness. At PG&E I held a variety of positions including corporate head of the Community Relations and Governmental Relations Departments, and for a time Vice President of Corporate Planning. While at PG&E I continued to teach a seminar each semester either at Cal or San Francisco State, where my wife was a Professor of Management I was active in the community especially with regard to public education, increasing opportunities for minority communities, homelessness and the economy. After retiring from PG&E I remained busy in the community serving as President of the Bay Area Economic Forum, a leadership partnership of governmental, business, university, environmental, community and labor leaders in the region. I was also asked to chair the Bay Area Defense Conversion Task Force which was charged with the challenge of dealing with the closure of twelve military bases in the region in the wake of the end of the Cold War with the attendant loss of over 250,000 jobs. I was also Co-Chair of the Bay Area Water Transit Task Force, and was asked by the President of the University of California System to chair the Board of Directors of the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement Program, a program serving historically under-represented minorities in the California Schools and Universities. A program I am proud to say that was started at Tech by Mary Perry Smith, a Tech math teacher. The program was extremely successful throughout California I was also appointed to the California Commission on the Management and Leadership of the Public Schools, the Director's Blue Ribbon Task Force for the California State Park System and a number of other assignments I also served as a director or trustee for a number of organizations whose work forcussed on services for urban youth, economic opportunity for minority communities, and reducing poverty and homelessness. In 1989 I received the United Way of the Bay Area Award for Outstanding Public Service and in 1991 the California State Senate passed a Resolution honoring my work in Support of Minority Communities. In Retirement I returned to academic research as a Visiting Scholar in the History Department at Cal and published another book and a number of articles. I am now a Professional Grandpa lucky to have 4 Grandchildren grow up right here in the area, just 10 minutes from our home in Berkeley. I have been blessed to have such an absolutely wonderful partner in Life in Jane. At 80 she is still a champion hiker and backpacker and we have enjoyed many great treks in the world and right here in the Sierra. I cherish her and my wonderful, supportive family

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Larry Baack has a birthday today. New comment added.
May
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May 13, 2023 at 8:30 PM

Posted on: May 13, 2023 at 1:33 AM

Larry Baack updated profile. View.
Nov 08, 2022 at 11:37 AM
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11
May 11, 2023 at 7:12 AM

Posted on: May 13, 2022 at 1:33 AM

Larry Baack has a birthday today.
May 13, 2021 at 1:33 AM
Larry Baack has a birthday today.
May 13, 2020 at 1:33 AM
Larry Baack has a birthday today.
May 13, 2019 at 1:33 AM
Larry Baack has a birthday today.
May 13, 2018 at 1:33 AM
Larry Baack has a birthday today.
May 13, 2017 at 1:33 AM
Larry Baack has left an In Memory comment for Stephen Cuthbert.
Sep 06, 2016 at 5:33 PM

Reading Dick Wehe's moving tribute to Steve Cuthbert brings back many memories of our times at Chabot, Claremont and Tech, as do the comments of Dave Gideon and many others. I especially think of our special days in Grammar School. Down from Chabot there was a whole group of boys about the same age - Bill Dubois, Steve and a bunch of others. We played together a lot in the streets and sometimes at St. Alberts on their grass. It was a great time growing up with lots of friends and we had  healthy fun. Steve was a great guy and indeed a terrific swimmer and a credit to our school and country. Dick's stories about him later at Temescal where we hung out a lot as little kids, and during the trip to Russia are really special. I heard of Steve's death a long time ago but did not know all of  the details. It is important to honor his memory. Those were very difficult times, so sad and so hard on his family. I had three deployments to Vietnam and during those years my wife, Jane, taught elementary school in Coronado. The school was just outside the Main Gate of North Island Naval Air Station, the home port to at least three of the carriers that fought in the war. The neighborhood was virtually all Navy and most of the dads were naval aviators. The tours and tragedies were so hard on the famlies and the children who came to that  school. The mothers (and today spouses)had to hold it all together during those long months and afterwards as well .We should remember them too for all they did and do. Many thanks to Dick for helping us remember our classmate, Steve Cuthbert.

Larry Baack

Larry Baack has a birthday today.
May 13, 2016 at 1:33 AM
Larry Baack has a birthday today.
May 13, 2015 at 1:34 AM




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