Pepperdine University Mourns the Passing of Seaver College Dean Emeritus W. David Baird
Pepperdine University is saddened to announce the passing of W. David Baird, Seaver College Dean Emeritus and Howard A. White Professor Emeritus of History, who passed away Friday, November 15, 2024.
“David Baird’s impact on Pepperdine is far-reaching and profound,” says Pepperdine president Jim Gash. “From his passion for American history to his dedication to Pepperdine’s Church of Christ foundation, Dr. Baird was a steadfast advocate for Pepperdine’s integration of faith and learning. His scholarly work and personal commitment helped shape the University’s sense of its own identity, mission, and potential. His legacy will live on at Pepperdine through the lecture series that bears his name and through his lasting contributions to the University’s institutional memory.”
A native of Edmond, Oklahoma, Baird earned his AA from George Washington University, Washington, DC; his BA in history and geography from the University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond; and his MA and PhD in history and geography from the University of Oklahoma, Norman.
Baird’s academic career began at the University of Arkansas, where he taught history from 1968 until 1978. He spent the following decade as chair and professor of history at Oklahoma State University. In 1988 Baird arrived at Pepperdine as the Howard A. White Professor of History at Seaver College, where he taught an array of topics, including historiography, introduction to research, and Native American history. One of his proudest moments came in 1991, when he was offered the opportunity to serve as a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.
In addition to his academic service to Pepperdine, Baird held the role of dean of Seaver College from 1998 to 2008. He was known for his commitment to strengthening the school’s academic standing and for his willingness to spend time getting to know members of the community—with long days at the office catching up on paperwork as the result. To bring new ideas to the Pepperdine community, he instituted a lecture series which was later named after him when he stepped down as dean. The four annual lectures in the W. David Baird Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series invite fascinating and notable speakers from various disciplines to the school.
Baird’s early scholarship focused on the life and history of Native American peoples of the Great Plains and Southeast, including the Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole, as well as the Quapaw and Osage tribes. As a historian of the American West and expert on various Native American tribes, Baird wrote or co-wrote 16 books and served as an expert witness for the Quapaw tribe. He was deeply fascinated by his home state of Oklahoma, which inspired him to coauthor Oklahoma: A History, published in 2011, and The Story of Oklahoma, the second edition of which was released in 2013. This book is still used as the adopted textbook for the State of Oklahoma.
For more than 20 years, Baird served as an elder at the University Church of Christ. He was an expert on Churches of Christ and on Pepperdine itself. As to the former, the University of Oklahoma Press published Baird’s Churches of Christ in Oklahoma in 2019, a title discussing the growth of the state’s Churches of Christ membership in the early part of the 20th century and how that membership began to decline in the 1970s. Baird argued that the distinct identity of the church was the key to its expansion—its uniqueness was its attraction. He felt that the University’s mission would best be served by leaning into its Christian heritage and that the Churches of Christ landscape on which Pepperdine rests is integral to his history of the school’s evolution. These topics were explored deeply in Quest for Distinction: Pepperdine University in the 20th Century, a book about Pepperdine's fascinating history, from its founding as a small faith-based college in 1937 to its emergence as a top-tier university at the turn of the century.
Baird served as national president of the Western History Association and history honor society Phi Alpha Theta and as executive director of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association. As an undergraduate student, he worked full time on the staff of John Jarman, member of the House of Representatives, 5th Congressional District, Oklahoma.
Baird is survived by his wife, Brenda “Jane” Baird; his daughter, Angela Baird Cheves ('92, MA ’93); his son, William “Tony” Baird (’94, JD ’97); and six grandchildren.
Details about a memorial service for the Pepperdine community and friends will be shared as more information becomes available.