James Baird (civil engineer)
Encyclopedia
James Baird was an American
civil engineer
, football
player and coach. He played football for the University of Michigan
from 1892
to 1895
and was captain of the 1894 team
. He was also an assistant football coach at Michigan from 1897
to 1898
. He worked for the George A. Fuller Co. for 23 years and eventually became its president. He later formed his own construction company called the James Baird Company. Baird directed the construction of many important buildings, including the Flatiron Building
, Lincoln Memorial
, Arlington Memorial Amphitheater
, and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
.
and attended high schools in Chicago, Illinois and Ann Arbor, Michigan
. His father, Lyman Beecher Baird (September 6, 1833 - October 24, 1907), was an Ohio native who worked as a farmer and merchant. In the 1880 United States Census, Lyman Baird was identified as a grocer in Vanceburg. He also operated a hardware store in Vanceburg that burned in the 1880s. His mother was Frances Amelia (Halbert) Baird, and he had an older brother Charles A. Baird
(born c. 1869).
where he played quarterback
for the football team from 1892 to 1895. He was captain of the 1894 Michigan team
that finished with a 9–1–1 record and recorded the school's first victory against one of the Eastern football powers with a 12–4 win over Cornell
at the Detroit Athletic Club
's field in Detroit
.
Baird played quarterback
for the 1895 Michigan team
that compiled an 8–1 record, won seven of their games by shutouts, and outscored their opponents by a combined score of 266 to 14. The sole loss of the 1895 season was a 4–0 setback against the Harvard Crimson
, then one of the three great football powers. Michigan finished the season with a 12–0 win over Western rival, Amos Alonzo Stagg
's Chicago Maroons
. Undefeated against Western opponents, the 1895 Wolverines laid claim to the Western football championship. At the end of the 1895 season, one Chicago newspaper, the Daily Inter Ocean selected Baird as the substitute quarterback on its All-Western team. Baird studied civil engineering
at Michigan and received his bachelor's degree in 1896. Baird's brother Charles A. Baird
was the manager of the 1894 and 1895 football teams at Michigan and later became the university's first athletic director.
After graduating, Baird served as an assistant football coach at Michigan from 1897 to 1898, including the 1898 Michigan team
that won the school's first Western Conference
championship. At the end of the 1898 season, the Chicago Inter-Ocean singled out Baird for his work in coaching the Michigan team:
After graduating from Michigan, Baird had a successful career in the construction industry. He started as a timekeeper for the Guaranty Construction Co. of Chicago and then as an engineer for Moulton-Starrett Co. of Columbus, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1899, Baird began a 23-year association with the George A. Fuller Co., a leading builder of skyscrapers and inventor of the modern contracting system. In December 1900, The New York Times
wrote:
Baird began working for the Fuller Company in New York City and directed the erection of the Flatiron Building
, the first steel-frame skyscraper in New York City. He moved to Boston in 1902 as the firm's general superintendent. He was transferred to Washington, D.C.
in 1904 as a district manager. He rose through the ranks of the company to become vice president in 1910 and president in May 1922. While working with the Fuller Company, Baird supervised the construction of the Lincoln Memorial
and the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater
in 1916, the Commodore Hotel
in 1919, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
in 1921, and the Freer Gallery of Art
in 1923. As the Lincoln Memorial neared completion, Baird wrote to World's Work magazine, "It is to be hoped that the Lincoln Memorial Building may exist for at least one thousand years, unless destroyed sooner by artificial means."
During World War I
, Baird volunteered to construct cantonment
s for the U.S. Army to house 20,000 to 30,000 men. In November 1918, at the end of hostilities, Baird applied for a passport to travel to France and Belgium to represent the Fuller Company in selling building materials to be used in the post-war reconstruction efforts. Bernard Baruch
, Chairman of the War Industries Board
, wrote a letter in support of Baird's application in which he stated:
In 1923, as a building boom created a shortage in skilled construction workers and supervisors, Baird served as Chairman of the Emergency Committee of the Mason Builders' Association. He was an outspoken advocate for additional funding for teaching the building trades in the schools.
In 1925, Baird formed his own construction company, the James Baird Construction Co., Inc. Baird and his company specialized in large construction projects and were responsible for the construction of many notable structures, including the Folger Shakespeare Library
in Washington, D.C., an addition to the Corcoran Gallery of Art
that opened in 1928, the dome at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, New York, the Brooklyn Printing Plant of The New York Times (design by Albert Kahn), Hutchins Hall and the Cook Dormitory at the University of Michigan Law School
, the Aeolian Building in New York, the Ferncliff Mausoleum
in Hartsdale, New York
, and the original ten buildings of the Madeira School in McLean, Virginia
, and the Reynolds Building
in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
. Upon completion of The New York Times Brooklyn printing plant, the newspaper called the marble, granite, steel, copper and concrete the "jewel box" and noted that no expense had been spared in its construction.
and the Village of Scarsdale
, New York
, and had two sons, John C. Baird (born c. 1906) and Charles Baird (born c. 1909). Baird served as a trustee of the Village of Scarsdale from 1926 to 1927. He was also a member of the Scarsdale Golf Club and the American Guernsey Cattle Club of Peterborough, New Hampshire
. In 1939, Baird donated his 600 acres (2.4 km²) farm at Pleasant Valley, New York to the State of New York for use as a park. The park is now known as James Baird State Park
.
In 1936, Baird traveled to Tucson, Arizona
to seek relief from asthma
. His health improved, and he made his permanent residence in Tucson for the last 17 years of his life. Baird was active in philanthropic causes in Tucson and donated $207,422 in 1948 to establish a scholarship fund at the University of Arizona
. At the time Baird's gift was "the largest single scholarship gift ever made to the University of Arizona." In May 1951, Baird received an honorary degree of doctor of engineering from the University of Arizona in recognition of his work as an engineer, builder, contractor, business executive and philanthropist.
In January 1948, Baird welcome the University of Michigan Marching Band to Tucson as they returned from the 1948 Rose Bowl
. He gave Michigan officials a tour of the University of Arizona campus and presented them with citrus from trees at the Baird residence at 4111 Calle El Centro in Tucson. Michigan's band conductor, William Revelli
, told Baird the welcome received in Tucson was the most enthusiastic received and that the band members were pleased with the turnout.
In May 1953, Baird died two days short of his 80th birthday at St. Mary's Hospital
in Tucson after a month's illness. Baird's widow died at Tucson in 1962. He was buried in the Baird family plot at Oakwood Cemetery in Chicago.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
, football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
player and coach. He played football for the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
from 1892
1892 Michigan Wolverines football team
The 1892 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1892 college football season. The team, with Frank Barbour as head coach, compiled a 7–5 record and outscored its opponents by a combined score of 298 to 170...
to 1895
1895 Michigan Wolverines football team
The 1895 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1895 college football season. The team, coached by medical student William McCauley, compiled an 8–1 record, won seven of their games by shutouts, and outscored their opponents by a combined score of 266 to...
and was captain of the 1894 team
1894 Michigan Wolverines football team
The 1894 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1894 college football season. The team, with William McCauley as head coach, compiled an 9–1–1 record and outscored its opponents by a combined score of 244 to 84. The Wolverines played a home-and-away series...
. He was also an assistant football coach at Michigan from 1897
1897 Michigan Wolverines football team
The 1897 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1897 college football season. The team, with former Michigan halfback, Gustave Ferbert, as head coach, compiled a record of 6–1–1 and outscored opponents by a combined score of 168 to 31. The team suffered its...
to 1898
1898 Michigan Wolverines football team
The 1898 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1898 college football season. The team, with Gustave Ferbert as head coach, went 10–0 and became the first Michigan football team to win the Western Conference championship. The first great Michigan football...
. He worked for the George A. Fuller Co. for 23 years and eventually became its president. He later formed his own construction company called the James Baird Company. Baird directed the construction of many important buildings, including the Flatiron Building
Flatiron Building
The Flatiron Building, or Fuller Building, as it was originally called, is located at 175 Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, New York City and is considered to be a groundbreaking skyscraper. Upon completion in 1902 it was one of the tallest buildings in the city and the only skyscraper...
, Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial is an American memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue was Daniel Chester French, and the painter of the interior...
, Arlington Memorial Amphitheater
Arlington Memorial Amphitheater
The Arlington Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery, near the center of the Cemetery, is the home of the Tomb of the Unknowns where Unknown American Servicemembers from World War I, World War II, and Korea are interred. This site has also hosted the state funerals of many famous...
, and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Tomb of the Unknowns
The Tomb of the Unknowns is a monument dedicated to American service members who have died without their remains being identified. It is located in Arlington National Cemetery in the United States...
.
Early years
Baird was born in Vanceburg, KentuckyVanceburg, Kentucky
Vanceburg is a city in Lewis County, Kentucky, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 1,731 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Lewis County.Vanceburg is part of the Maysville Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
and attended high schools in Chicago, Illinois and Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...
. His father, Lyman Beecher Baird (September 6, 1833 - October 24, 1907), was an Ohio native who worked as a farmer and merchant. In the 1880 United States Census, Lyman Baird was identified as a grocer in Vanceburg. He also operated a hardware store in Vanceburg that burned in the 1880s. His mother was Frances Amelia (Halbert) Baird, and he had an older brother Charles A. Baird
Charles A. Baird
Charles A. Baird was an American football manager, university athletic director, and banker.He was the manager of the University of Michigan football team from 1893 to 1895 and the school's first athletic director from 1898 to 1909. During his time as Michigan's athletic director, he was...
(born c. 1869).
University of Michigan
He enrolled at the University of MichiganUniversity of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
where he played quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
for the football team from 1892 to 1895. He was captain of the 1894 Michigan team
1894 Michigan Wolverines football team
The 1894 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1894 college football season. The team, with William McCauley as head coach, compiled an 9–1–1 record and outscored its opponents by a combined score of 244 to 84. The Wolverines played a home-and-away series...
that finished with a 9–1–1 record and recorded the school's first victory against one of the Eastern football powers with a 12–4 win over Cornell
Cornell Big Red football
The Cornell Big Red football team represents Cornell University in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Championship Subdivision college football competition as a member of the Ivy League. It is one of the oldest and most storied football programs in the nation...
at the Detroit Athletic Club
Detroit Athletic Club
The Detroit Athletic Club , is a private social club and athletic club located in the heart of Detroit's theater, sports, and entertainment district. The clubhouse was designed by Albert Kahn and inspired by Rome's Palazzo Farnese. It maintains reciprocal agreements for their members at other...
's field in Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
.
Baird played quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
for the 1895 Michigan team
1895 Michigan Wolverines football team
The 1895 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1895 college football season. The team, coached by medical student William McCauley, compiled an 8–1 record, won seven of their games by shutouts, and outscored their opponents by a combined score of 266 to...
that compiled an 8–1 record, won seven of their games by shutouts, and outscored their opponents by a combined score of 266 to 14. The sole loss of the 1895 season was a 4–0 setback against the Harvard Crimson
Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson are the athletic teams of Harvard University. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2006, there were 41 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than at any other NCAA Division I college in the country...
, then one of the three great football powers. Michigan finished the season with a 12–0 win over Western rival, Amos Alonzo Stagg
Amos Alonzo Stagg
Amos Alonzo Stagg was an American athlete and pioneering college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football...
's Chicago Maroons
Chicago Maroons
The Maroons are the intercollegiate sports teams of the University of Chicago. They are named after the color maroon, one of the school's colors. They compete in the NCAA's Division III. They are primarily members of the University Athletic Association and were co-founders of the Big Ten...
. Undefeated against Western opponents, the 1895 Wolverines laid claim to the Western football championship. At the end of the 1895 season, one Chicago newspaper, the Daily Inter Ocean selected Baird as the substitute quarterback on its All-Western team. Baird studied civil engineering
Civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...
at Michigan and received his bachelor's degree in 1896. Baird's brother Charles A. Baird
Charles A. Baird
Charles A. Baird was an American football manager, university athletic director, and banker.He was the manager of the University of Michigan football team from 1893 to 1895 and the school's first athletic director from 1898 to 1909. During his time as Michigan's athletic director, he was...
was the manager of the 1894 and 1895 football teams at Michigan and later became the university's first athletic director.
After graduating, Baird served as an assistant football coach at Michigan from 1897 to 1898, including the 1898 Michigan team
1898 Michigan Wolverines football team
The 1898 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1898 college football season. The team, with Gustave Ferbert as head coach, went 10–0 and became the first Michigan football team to win the Western Conference championship. The first great Michigan football...
that won the school's first Western Conference
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Its twelve member institutions are located primarily in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Nebraska in the west to Pennsylvania in the east...
championship. At the end of the 1898 season, the Chicago Inter-Ocean singled out Baird for his work in coaching the Michigan team:
"They had been a disorganized team three weeks before, but Jimmy Baird had come on to maneuver the backs, stop the fumbling, and put snap and life into the team. As a coach he has been a wonderful success. No one who knows his record as a captain can doubt that he is a worker of miracles to whose power Michigan's wonderful improvement is due. He was continually working over his men or defensive play, when he played the game himself, slapping them on the back, cheering up one, and swearing at another, until Michigan's team became a power and a terror. This year he left his business to rush back at the last moment to lick the team into shape for a victory."
Construction career
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote:
"No other firm in the world, perhaps, has played so large a part in revolutionizing the building trade as the George A. Fuller Company, and to it primarily is due the credit of having originated many of the actual construction methods now in use."
Baird began working for the Fuller Company in New York City and directed the erection of the Flatiron Building
Flatiron Building
The Flatiron Building, or Fuller Building, as it was originally called, is located at 175 Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, New York City and is considered to be a groundbreaking skyscraper. Upon completion in 1902 it was one of the tallest buildings in the city and the only skyscraper...
, the first steel-frame skyscraper in New York City. He moved to Boston in 1902 as the firm's general superintendent. He was transferred to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
in 1904 as a district manager. He rose through the ranks of the company to become vice president in 1910 and president in May 1922. While working with the Fuller Company, Baird supervised the construction of the Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial is an American memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue was Daniel Chester French, and the painter of the interior...
and the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater
Arlington Memorial Amphitheater
The Arlington Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery, near the center of the Cemetery, is the home of the Tomb of the Unknowns where Unknown American Servicemembers from World War I, World War II, and Korea are interred. This site has also hosted the state funerals of many famous...
in 1916, the Commodore Hotel
Grand Hyatt New York
The Grand Hyatt New York is a hotel located directly east of Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was originally built and opened on January 28, 1919 as The Commodore Hotel, but was completely rebuilt and modernized in 1980....
in 1919, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Tomb of the Unknowns
The Tomb of the Unknowns is a monument dedicated to American service members who have died without their remains being identified. It is located in Arlington National Cemetery in the United States...
in 1921, and the Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
The Freer Gallery of Art joins the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery to form the Smithsonian Institution's national museums of Asian art. The Freer contains art from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Islamic world, the ancient Near East, and ancient Egypt, as well as a significant collection of...
in 1923. As the Lincoln Memorial neared completion, Baird wrote to World's Work magazine, "It is to be hoped that the Lincoln Memorial Building may exist for at least one thousand years, unless destroyed sooner by artificial means."
During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Baird volunteered to construct cantonment
Cantonment
A cantonment is a temporary or semi-permanent military or police quarters. The word cantonment is derived from the French word canton meaning corner or district, as is the name of the Cantons of Switzerland. In South Asia, the term cantonment also describes permanent military stations...
s for the U.S. Army to house 20,000 to 30,000 men. In November 1918, at the end of hostilities, Baird applied for a passport to travel to France and Belgium to represent the Fuller Company in selling building materials to be used in the post-war reconstruction efforts. Bernard Baruch
Bernard Baruch
Bernard Mannes Baruch was an American financier, stock-market speculator, statesman, and political consultant. After his success in business, he devoted his time toward advising U.S. Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt on economic matters and became a philanthropist.-Early life...
, Chairman of the War Industries Board
War Industries Board
The War Industries Board was a United States government agency established on July 28, 1917, during World War I, to coordinate the purchase of war supplies. The organization encouraged companies to use mass-production techniques to increase efficiency and urged them to eliminate waste by...
, wrote a letter in support of Baird's application in which he stated:
"This is to certify that I know Mr. James Baird personally and have known him practically all my life, and that I know him to be an American born citizen born in Vanceburg, Ky.Vanceburg, KentuckyVanceburg is a city in Lewis County, Kentucky, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 1,731 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Lewis County.Vanceburg is part of the Maysville Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
about 45 years ago. I know his father also, an American citizen born in America."
In 1923, as a building boom created a shortage in skilled construction workers and supervisors, Baird served as Chairman of the Emergency Committee of the Mason Builders' Association. He was an outspoken advocate for additional funding for teaching the building trades in the schools.
In 1925, Baird formed his own construction company, the James Baird Construction Co., Inc. Baird and his company specialized in large construction projects and were responsible for the construction of many notable structures, including the Folger Shakespeare Library
Folger Shakespeare Library
The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare materials from the early modern period...
in Washington, D.C., an addition to the Corcoran Gallery of Art
Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art is the largest privately supported cultural institution in Washington, DC. The museum's main focus is American art. The permanent collection includes works by Rembrandt, Eugène Delacroix, Edgar Degas, Thomas Gainsborough, John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet, Pablo...
that opened in 1928, the dome at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, New York, the Brooklyn Printing Plant of The New York Times (design by Albert Kahn), Hutchins Hall and the Cook Dormitory at the University of Michigan Law School
University of Michigan Law School
The University of Michigan Law School is the law school of the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor. Founded in 1859, the school has an enrollment of about 1,200 students, most of whom are seeking Juris Doctor or Master of Laws degrees, although the school also offers a Doctor of Juridical...
, the Aeolian Building in New York, the Ferncliff Mausoleum
Ferncliff Cemetery
Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum is located on Secor Road in the hamlet of Hartsdale, town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, about 25 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. It was founded in 1902, and is non-sectarian...
in Hartsdale, New York
Hartsdale, New York
Hartsdale is a hamlet and a census-designated place located in the town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York. The population was 5,293 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Hartsdale is located at ....
, and the original ten buildings of the Madeira School in McLean, Virginia
McLean, Virginia
McLean is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. The community had a total population of 48,115 as of the 2010 census....
, and the Reynolds Building
Reynolds Building
The Reynolds Building is a 314ft skyscraper in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It was completed in 1929 and has 21 floors. When completed as the headquarters of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, it was the tallest building in the United States south of Baltimore, Maryland, and it won a national...
in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina, with a 2010 population of 229,617. Winston-Salem is the county seat and largest city of Forsyth County and the fourth-largest city in the state. Winston-Salem is the second largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region and is home to...
. Upon completion of The New York Times Brooklyn printing plant, the newspaper called the marble, granite, steel, copper and concrete the "jewel box" and noted that no expense had been spared in its construction.
Family and philanthropy
Baird was married to Cornelia Cornelia Curtis (born May 1875) at Chicago on March 28, 1900. They lived in Manhattan, and later in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and the Village of Scarsdale
Scarsdale, New York
Scarsdale is a coterminous town and village in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the northern suburbs of New York City. The Town of Scarsdale is coextensive with the Village of Scarsdale, but the community has opted to operate solely with a village government, one of several villages...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and had two sons, John C. Baird (born c. 1906) and Charles Baird (born c. 1909). Baird served as a trustee of the Village of Scarsdale from 1926 to 1927. He was also a member of the Scarsdale Golf Club and the American Guernsey Cattle Club of Peterborough, New Hampshire
Peterborough, New Hampshire
Peterborough is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,284 at the 2010 census. Home to the MacDowell Art Colony, the town is a popular tourist destination....
. In 1939, Baird donated his 600 acres (2.4 km²) farm at Pleasant Valley, New York to the State of New York for use as a park. The park is now known as James Baird State Park
James Baird State Park
James Baird State Park is a state park in Dutchess County, New York, USA. The park is located in the northern part of the Town of LaGrange, east of City of Poughkeepsie....
.
In 1936, Baird traveled to Tucson, Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
to seek relief from asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
. His health improved, and he made his permanent residence in Tucson for the last 17 years of his life. Baird was active in philanthropic causes in Tucson and donated $207,422 in 1948 to establish a scholarship fund at the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
. At the time Baird's gift was "the largest single scholarship gift ever made to the University of Arizona." In May 1951, Baird received an honorary degree of doctor of engineering from the University of Arizona in recognition of his work as an engineer, builder, contractor, business executive and philanthropist.
In January 1948, Baird welcome the University of Michigan Marching Band to Tucson as they returned from the 1948 Rose Bowl
1948 Rose Bowl
The 1948 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game played on January 1, 1948. It was the 34th Rose Bowl Game, and the second since the Big Nine Conference and the Pacific Coast Conference reached an exclusive agreement to match their champions in the game each year. In the game, the Michigan...
. He gave Michigan officials a tour of the University of Arizona campus and presented them with citrus from trees at the Baird residence at 4111 Calle El Centro in Tucson. Michigan's band conductor, William Revelli
William Revelli
William D. Revelli was the director of bands, including the Michigan Marching Band, at the University of Michigan for 36 years from 1935-1971. During his 36 years as director, the Michigan Marching Band won international acclaim for its musical precision...
, told Baird the welcome received in Tucson was the most enthusiastic received and that the band members were pleased with the turnout.
In May 1953, Baird died two days short of his 80th birthday at St. Mary's Hospital
St. Joseph's Medical Center (Tucson, Arizona)
St. Joseph's Hospital is a private, not-for-profit, 478-bed acute-care hospital in Tucson, Arizona. St. Joseph's Hospital is part of Carondelet Health Network which includes sister hospitals St. Mary's Hospital and Holy Cross Hospital . Located on Tucson's east side, St. Joseph's Hospital...
in Tucson after a month's illness. Baird's widow died at Tucson in 1962. He was buried in the Baird family plot at Oakwood Cemetery in Chicago.