Therese “Terry” L. Baker-Degler (Elzas)

Stanford, CA 94305

 

Undergrad college/major: Arts and Sciences/History.

Affiliations at Cornell: Alpha Epsilon Phi.

Advanced degrees: Ph.D. in Sociology Univ. of Chicago 1973.

Career/occupation: Professor of Sociology: first at DePaul Univ. in Chicago 1971-88 (was a department chair and a division head); 1989, I became a founding faculty at California State Univ., San Marcos (North County San Diego), (I developed the Sociology Dept. there from 1989-2002); I also represented CSUSM at the Statewide academic senate of the California State Univ. which met monthly in Long Beach 1989-95 and went to Sacramento to talk to state legislators many times.

Honors and awards: Various related to my Sociology career: Governor’s Historic Preservation Award to the Historic Houses Project of Faculty Houses on the Stanford University Campus, November 2007. (I was the principal author of our successful application which grew out of our set of published books on the more than 120 pre-1930 houses on the Stanford campus.)  Our Historic Houses Committee went to Sacramento to receive our award from the Governor.

Important affiliations: President, Stanford Historical Society, 2008-10; Member of Board of the Stanford Campus Residential Leaseholders from 2008-Present.

Published work: Numerous articles and one text book: Doing Social Research which went into three editions, with McGraw-Hill.

Marital status: Married.

Spouse: Carl N. Degler.

Children: 2 sons: Julian and Felix Baker, the two brothers run Baker Bros. Investments, a primary investment biotech fund out of NYC where they both live. Julian attended Harvard, Felix attended Stanford and completed a Ph.D. in Immunology with medical training at Stanford as well.

Grandchildren: 6 grandchildren: 3 for each son.  Julian’s children:  Charlotte (9) is currently appearing in G. Balanchines’ Nutcracker with the New York City Ballet.  She attends Brearley.  Her brother Wolf (6) attends Collegiate, her youngest brother, Ajax is not yet one.  My younger son’s (Felix’s) children include the twins: Hugo and Guy (4) who attend the 92nd Street Y Nursery school; their younger brother, Wes will (2).

Outstanding Cornell memory: Prof. Norman Malcolm pacing the floor in front of our philosophy class, “The Mind/Body Problem.” It was something about Wittgenstein - and way over my head.

How has your life differed from what you expected? The times and culture of American society in 1961 have changed very dramatically.  I didn’t think I would have an academic career and actually focus on the changing roles of women and men which I was experiencing myself.

 

Cornell activities post-grad: Have maintained contact with a few friends; have gone on three Cornell travels: Alaska; Russia; Lost Worlds of Libya and Tunisia (though never got into Libya ‘cause Quaddafi wouldn’t let us!! this was in 2007.)

 

Personal reflections: I met my first husband (Keith Baker) at Cornell and followed him to London and Paris where he completed his History Ph.D.  Then we returned to the US and settled into the Hyde Park community of the Univ. of Chicago where we raised our sons, I got my Ph.D.  We moved to Stanford in 1988, after having visited for a year, and lived on the campus.  I commuted to southern CA for 10 years to help “found” California’s newest public university, then divorced, but remarried within a year to another historian at Stanford.  While I had a career, I never really made a fully independent life for myself given that I had been so totally socialized to be a wife and mother.  No regrets, but Cornell did nothing to promote my own independence - I’m not sure it was the right kind of institution for many young women (including myself) in the late 1950s and 1960s.  It wasn’t really the fault of Cornell - but women weren’t encouraged to believe in their own individuality and independence.