Joseph Baird

Our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather quietly passed away on November 29, 2015. He was 79 years old.
Mark, as he was known throughout his life, was born on June 4, 1936 in Murray, Utah to Mark J Baird and Ruth Melissa Smith Baird. He was the oldest of six children. He grew up in Draper, Utah and attended Jordan High School. He served a full-time mission for the LDS Church in the Northwestern States Mission. After returning home he attended BYU. He met his future wife, Carolyn Jean Hedin, when he tried to sell her a set of cookware. He sealed the deal with a marriage proposal.
On December 15, 1961, Mark and Carolyn were married in the Salt Lake Temple. As they began raising their young family, he returned to school. Mark graduated from the University of Utah with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1970. He moved his family to California where he worked at Hughes Research Labs in Malibu. Later, the family moved to Maryland where Mark worked for BK Dynamics in Gaithersburg, MD and for the Naval Research Labs in Washington D.C. In 1981, he moved his family back to Utah to work as a Research Professor at the University of Utah specializing in theory, research and applications in electromagnetics, electron beams, microwave/millimeter wave sources, gyro-cyclotron devices and plasma. During his lengthy career, he became a nationally recognized expert in high-powered microwave tubes and antennas. During his tenure at the U of U, he also worked at L-3 Communications and did consulting for various companies. His work earned him numerous patents on inventions such as a splashplate antenna system, shrouded horn feed assembly, and a plural band feed system and he authored several publications.
Mark served faithfully in many church callings over the years. Most notably, he served as bishop of the Newbury Park Ward in California. In 2006, Mark and Carolyn served a 6-month mission at the Mormon Handcart Sites in Wyoming. They enjoyed it so much they returned in 2007 for another 6 months. During this mission service, Mark became a certified blacksmith and set up the first blacksmith shop at Martin’s Cove. He was currently serving a mission at the Records Operations Center in Sandy, UT.
Mark loved the outdoors and he shared that love with his family. Some of his favorite activities included camping, hiking and cross-country skiing. He spent numerous hours with his grandchildren and would often delight them by reciting the alphabet backwards as fast as he could. We were blessed to learn many valuable lessons from him, most notably that wearing a hardhat and carrying a clipboard could get you in almost anywhere marked “Do Not Enter” and, despite experience to the contrary, that you can go anywhere in a 4-wheel drive vehicle.
Mark is preceded in death by his parents and a brother, Kim Baird. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Carolyn, and four children: Mark (Cyndi) Baird, Rebecca (Gary) Painter, Jeffrey (Lory) Baird, and Michelle (Keith) Matthews. He is also survived by 13 grandchildren, 3 great-grandchildren; brothers Karl and Paul Baird, and sisters Claudine Greenwood and Glenda Coltrin.
A viewing will be held Sunday evening from 7-9 pm at the Ashley Park Ward building, 10312 Ashley Park Dr. (2130 E) Sandy. Funeral services will be held at the Ashley Park Ward building on Mon., Dec. 7th at 11:00 am with a visitation beforehand from 9:30-10:30 am. Interment will be at Mountain View Memorial Cemetery, 3115 East Bengal Blvd. (7800 South), Cottonwood Heights, UT.