Dale Baker

BAKER Dale Baker of Clintonville passed away Sunday at Riverside Hospital. He was 85 years old. Mr. Baker served as director emeritus of Chemical Abstracts Services since 1986. Born in Bucyrus to Omar and Bessie Baker, Mr. Baker is survived by his loving wife, Rosemary; sons, William (Julie), Hanford, Calif., Dan, Columbus and Jay (Hazel), Worthington; and grandchildren, Myra, Jerritt and Haley. Mr. Baker was a graduate and loyal alumnus of Ohio State University, earning both bachelor's and master's degrees there. He was awarded honorary doctorates from Ohio State in 1986 and from Franklin University in 2005. Baker came up through the ranks of CAS, beginning as a part-time office boy in 1939 while attending Ohio State. After graduating with a degree in chemical engineering, he spent four years working as a supervisory chemist at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., before returning to CAS as an assistant editor in 1946. He became CAS director in 1958, and served in that capacity for 28 years. Starting in the 1960s under Mr. Baker's direction, CAS developed an automated information processing system that initiated CAS' emergence as a premier electronic information resource. In the early 1980s, he encouraged the development of CAS ONLINE, providing direct access to CAS databases, and became a founder of the STN International network in cooperation with Germany's FIZ Karlsruhe. STN made a wealth of scientific information more widely available for chemists and allied scientists through a new concept in distributed processing on a global scale. Mr. Baker held leadership roles in the International Council of Scientific Unions Abstracting Board, the National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services, the American Society for Information Science, and several UNESCO committees. He was appointed by President Nixon to the U.S. team of experts in scientific and technical information that visited the USSR in 1973. Locally, Mr. Baker was an active member of the Ohio Academy of Science, the Rotary Club, Probus, the Kit Kat Club, the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce, the Ohio State University Alumni Association, the COSI Board of Trustees and in many other organizations. Baker garnered many honors during his career, including the American Chemical Society's Patterson-Crane Award and Herman Skolnik Award. He was inducted into the Ohio Science and Technology Hall of Fame in 2003. A private family service will be held. Friends who wish may contribute donations to The Ohio State University Alumni Association in Dale's memory.