John Willis Baer

{{Short description|Presbyterian official, Occidental College president (1861-1931)}}

File:John Willis Baer.jpg

Dr. John Willis Baer (March 2, 1861 in Rochester, Minnesota[https://archive.org/details/whoswho141926/page/199/mode/2up BAER, John Willis] in Who's Who in America (1926 edition); p. 199; via archive.org– February 8, 1931 in Pasadena, California)[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CyUcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=O0sEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4962,2144880 Death notice] in The Pittsburgh Press was an official of the Presbyterian Church and a president of Occidental College. From 1890-1900 he was the Young People's Secretary of the United Society of Christian Endeavor. In 1893, he compiled the Junior Christian Endeavor songbook.{{cite web|url=https://hymnary.org/person/Baer_John#google_vignette |publisher=Hymnary.org |title=John Willis Baer}} From 1900 to 1906, he was the assistant secretary of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church.

He was President of Occidental College in Los Angeles (then a Presbyterian school) from 1906 to 1916.{{Cite web|url=http://www.historycooperative.org/btw/Vol.12/html/450.html |title = Booker T. Washington's: A Fire for Learning | History Cooperative|date = 22 March 2020}} During his presidency, the college moved to Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, hosted President William Howard Taft, severed ties with the Presbyterian Church, and attempted, but failed, to convert into an all-men's institution. The plans were met with widespread backlash from students and faculty who protested the change. The community outcry garnered national headlines and the board later dropped the proposal.{{cite news | title = Ask Trustees to Reverse | work = Los Angeles Times | date = 11 April 1912}}{{cite news | title = Tells Students Way of Change | work = Los Angeles Times | date = 1 May 1912}}{{cite web | url = http://www.vs3-12.historypin.appspot.com/attach/uid31471/map/#!/geo:34.105168,-118.202036/zoom:15/dialog:87139/tab:details/ | title = Oxy remains co-ed | publisher = Occidental College Archives | access-date = 30 March 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150402050022/http://www.vs3-12.historypin.appspot.com/attach/uid31471/map#!/geo:34.105168,-118.202036/zoom:15/dialog:87139/tab:details/ | archive-date = 2015-04-02 | url-status = dead }} Baer resigned the presidency on November 1, 1916, due to exhaustion and the failure of a capital campaign to meet expectations.{{cite web|url=https://www.oxy.edu/magazine/issues/spring-2017/life-during-wartime |publisher=Occidental Magazine |date=Spring 2017 |title=Life During Wartime}}

In 1919 was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.Proceedings of the 218th (2008) General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), p. 1484 Following his tenure as President of Occidental, Baer became a Vice-President of Security Pacific National Bank In 1931, he died of a heart attack in his cottage at the Huntington Hotel. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.