Geoffrey Baer

Born in 1956, Baer was raised in the Chicago suburbs of Highland Park and Deerfield.{{cite web|url=http://www.northwestern.edu/magazine/fall2015/feature/ask-geoffrey-wttw-chicago-historian-geoffrey-baer.html|title=Ask Geoffrey|publisher=|accessdate=12 April 2016}} Baer's father was an accountant while his mother worked as a music and art teacher. His family is of Eastern European Jewish ancestry. Baer recalls one prophetic childhood moment in which his Russian/Yiddish grandmother, grasping his face in her hands, proclaimed that he would be on television someday. Baer was involved in theater in high school, and he majored in radio, television and film at Miami University.

After graduating from college, Baer worked at various television stations in Cincinnati, Saginaw, Michigan, and Philadelphia, eventually becoming a staff producer of a nightly television show in Philadelphia. Returning to school at Northwestern University’s School of Communication, Baer earned a master's degree in theater, and then taught theater part-time for five years at a small, private high school called the Chicago Academy for the Arts. He also became a volunteer docent for the Chicago Architecture Foundation and led boat tours of the Chicago River.

{{expand section|date=April 2016}}

In 1989, Baer began working for WTTW Chicago as an associate producer for arts programs[https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffrey-baer-86ba543 Profile] at LinkedIn while continuing to lead Chicago Architecture Foundation boat tours on the weekends. In 1995, the newly-appointed chairman of WTTW took one such tour and approached Baer afterward. According to Baer, "By the time I got to work the next day, he’d called the station and said we should make the tour a TV show."

His first show, Chicago By Boat, became so popular that it was updated in 2006. By then, Baer had hosted more than 20 programs highlighting Chicago area architecture and history. Today, Baer's programs often accompany pledge drives for WTTW because pledges tend to increase during Baer's programs or when DVDs of his programs are offered as gifts in exchange for pledges. Baer often serves as host for these pledge shows.{{cite web |url=http://chicagoist.com/2007/11/19/interview_wttws.php |title=Interview: WTTW's Geoffrey Baer |accessdate=2016-05-03 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113143043/http://chicagoist.com/2007/11/19/interview_wttws.php |archivedate=2016-01-13 }}

Baer lives in Evanston, Illinois with his family. In his free time, he enjoys competitive sailing.

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|1298057}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baer, Geoffrey}}

Category:Living people

Category:American television personalities

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male television actors

Category:Travel broadcasters

Category:1960 births