Thomas Norton Bayer

 

 

 

Thomas N. Bayer, Ph.D.

 

Thomas Norton Bayer, 88, of rural Houston, Minnesota, passed away peacefully at his home on Sunday morning, March 12, 2023. He was born in Elyria, Ohio on December 23, 1934 to John Alexander Bayer II and Mabel Ellen (Johnson) Bayer.

While being educated in the St. Paul Public Schools, Tom was awarded the Eagle Scout Badge and God and Country Medal from the Boy Scouts in 1951. He worked his own way through Macalester College and received his Bachelor’s Degree in 1957, with a major in geology and a minor in biology. He earned four letters on the Mac Swimming Team where he was a springboard diver and freestyle sprinter. He was swim team captain his senior year.

Tom was accepted for graduate studies at the University of Minnesota in 1957. He received a Master of Science Degree in geology in 1960, while he was working as an instructor in geology at Macalester College. He continued his graduate studies and received his Ph.D. in 1965, with a major in geology and a minor in geophysics. Tom’s Ph.D. dissertation was in the field of paleoecology.

In 1964 he left his position at Macalester to accept a position as a professor of Earth Science at Winona State College. He went on to establish the first Department of Geology and Earth Science in what is now the Minnesota State University system in 1968. He served as chair of the department until 1977, retiring in 1996. Dozens of Winona State University geology and earth science majors have indelible memories of camping on the numerous multi-week Western Field Trip Expeditions he organized and led in the summers.  

He was a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, an active member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Paleontological Society, the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists and the Society of Sigma Xi. His scientific publications were in the field of invertebrate paleontology.

In addition to being a great swing dancer, Tom was an avid outdoorsman who loved hunting with any of his seven beloved golden retrievers over the decades, as well as fishing, birding and playing golf. Tom was known for his huge vegetable garden. He earned his pilot’s license and enjoyed flying a single engine Cessna 150 and a twin engine Piper Cub, having fun taking numerous children up for their first airplane rides. He became a certified Master Scuba Diver, delighting in 1,393 dives in many parts of the world, from searching numerous shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, to exploring downed World War II aircraft in Palau, Micronesia. Tom was invited to be a guest lecturer on several live-aboard dive boats and at numerous diving resorts in the Caribbean. They greatly enjoyed his underwater photography, learning about the reefs and their inhabitants. He also taught them about the constellations and astronomy of the local night sky. Tom was still diving into his 80s and always treasured the lasting friendships made through those scuba diving trips.

He is survived by the love of his life, his wife of 48 years, Marilyn Frauenkron Bayer; their two daughters April Bayer (Houston, Texas) and Adrienne Bayer (rural Houston, Minnesota); as well as daughter Elizabeth Bayer (Rollingstone, Minnesota) from a previous marriage; sister Nan (John) Shimota (Minnetonka, Minnesota), half-brothers Scott (Jerrie Lynne) Bayer, (Minneapolis, Minnesota) and Peter (Teri) Bayer (Becker, Minnesota); brother-in-law Arlyn (Susan) Frauenkron (rural Houston, Minnesota), sisters-in-law Donna (Charles) Chapel (rural Money Creek, Minnesota), Sandra (Terry) Ask (rural Houston, Minnesota), as well as dozens of extraordinarily wonderful nephews, nieces, great-nieces and great-nephews.

Tom was preceded in death by his parents John Bayer II (1962) and Mabel Bayer (1992), his mother-in-law and father-in-law: Dora (1985) and Mirton (1994) Frauenkron, brother-in-law and sister-in-law Duane (2002) and Lois (2015) Frauenkron and his two grandsons: Avery (2018) and Logan (2021) Chiono.

Tom said, “Above all I tried to be a good teacher and I worked hard for my students; although I did not suffer fools gladly.” A fact to which hundreds of his students, from over a four decade career, could attest, along with the lasting positive impact many, over the years, have told him he had on their lives.

As Tom was an avid reader since early childhood, the family requests any donations in his memory be made to the Friends of the Houston Public Library.

A private family celebration of Tom’s life will be held this summer in the place he felt most blessed to live for almost half a century, Catalpa Coulee.