Obituary: Charles Frederick Baes Jr.

Charlie Baes—beloved husband, father, and friend—passed away in his sleep on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014, at his home in Oak Ridge.

He was born on Dec. 2, 1924, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Charles Frederick Baes and Edna Irene Ridenour.

He married his sweetheart, Julia Rodriguez, on Jan. 9, 1948, in Los Angeles, Calif. They spent 57 wonderful years together in marriage and raised three children. Their tender and deep affection for each other lasted until Julia’s passing in 2005.

Charlie demonstrated through his actions that his love for family was of supreme importance in his life. Together, Charlie and Julia created lasting memories taking family vacations and traveling to Honduras, where Julia was from.

Charlie was born with a keen intellect and an unquenchable curiosity about the world around him. As a child, his favorite subjects were astronomy and physics, and in college he found his true calling in the subject of chemistry.

He graduated from Rutgers, earned a PhD from the University of Southern California, and took a position as a chemist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1951. He retired from ORNL at age 62.

His body of work has earned him world-wide recognition from his peers. He literally wrote the book on the behavior of cations in solution.

In 1976, he was the lead author on a seminal and pioneering report titled “The Global Carbon Dioxide Problem.” The report examined the global carbon cycle, the impact of fossil fuel burning, and possible outcomes with and without changes in human responses to the problem. Today, almost 40 years after this landmark report was published, the global impact of burning fossil fuels is universally recognized as possibly the most important environmental challenge faced by man.

Charlie was a humble, polite, and generous man. He never met a person he didn’t like. He was never afraid to stand up for his beliefs and yet never judged others for theirs. He believed in the basic goodness in man and was always certain that given the right circumstances people would do the right thing. He loved telling jokes and would delight in telling stories from his past. His recall of facts and events from his life was impressive. He loved movies with happy endings and where good triumphed over evil at the end. He was the ultimate optimist. For him, every day was a potential learning experience and everything had a purpose. Charlie believed that living life was a privilege, and he never wasted an opportunity to make things better.

Charlie was preceded in death by his wife, Julia. He is survived by his children Charles Frederick III (Fred), Linda Marie (Lee) Wakefield, and Sandra Jean (Eddie) Monfort, as well as nine grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and his sister, Jean Elizabeth Huling.

The family greeted friends on Thursday, Jan. 30, from 5–7 p.m. at Weatherford Mortuary. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Tennessee Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, 403 7th Ave. N, Nashville, TN 37243 ([email protected]). An online guest book can be signed at www.weatherfordmortuary.com.