Dr. Barbara Bernache-Baker

Dr. Barbara Bernache-Baker, of Ivy, Virginia, passed away peacefully at her home on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico on Wednesday, January 8, 2020. She was born on July 4, 1929 in Hartford Connecticut and received her undergraduate degree in biology at Trinity College. Later, she undertook graduate studies at Wesleyan University (Master's), the University of Leyden in the Netherlands, and the University of San Francisco (Ph.D.). While at Harvard University, she carried out research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Research Institute. For many years, she taught science at the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut. She had lived intermittently on the island of Vieques for 47 years. There she worked to protect Puerto Mosquito, the last surviving, largest, and most famous of Puerto Rico's bio-luminescent bays. Barbara is survived by her devoted husband of 65 years, Jeffrey J. W. Baker, and their four children, Rebekah McGuire of Port Townsend, Washington, and her husband, Todd, Deborah Baker of Brooklyn, New York and her husband, Amitav Ghosh, and Jennifer and Jonathan Baker of Ivy, Virginia and their spouses, Tom Elliott and Julie Baker. She had ten grandchildren who will miss her deeply, Lily, Sophie, Aly, Eliza, Benjamin, and Girma Baker, Molly and Abigail McGuire, Lila, and Nayan Ghosh. She is also survived by her brother, John Bernache, of Winter Haven, Florida. Barbara was also a founding board member of the Vieques Conservation and Historical Trust (vcht.org). In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to the Trust to ensure the work that she devoted much of her life to continues. Services will be held on Friday, January 17, 2020, at 11 a.m., St. Paul's Episcopal, Ivy.