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Voices that Inspire

Hear stories from some of our most inspirational voices — you!

Pictured: Wilson Baker

Listen: Week of April 21, 2025

Transcript
What inspires you from WFSU Public Media? Here's this week's Voices That Inspire. Wilson Baker and I'm a biologist and specialized in field work. I grew up in Pennsylvania, spent summers in New Hampshire, went to school in Indiana, then started graduate work at Athens University of Georgia. And then when I was at Georgia, I heard about a job at tall timbers and applied and got in. In the fall of 1966, as the first full-time staff when they were getting organized to a new research station, real small, just the directors basically unpaid staff that set up the station along with Mr. Beetle, the owner that left the property as a research station. So I worked with Ed and Roy Comaric and Mr. Stoddard, who's the quote, Grand Old Quail Man, locally known as, and then stayed on there for 15 years, doing my own research and station and outreach for the station. Ever since a child, I have, I think, what some people have turned the curious naturalist, just the all and the wanting to learn more about what I'm seeing and that leads you into wanting to know the life histories of things in ecology, how they fit into the environment, and that leads you into liking to say, a particular plant community enough that you want it, good quality sites to be saved, so you end up being an advocate for certain things. So it's just a progression, fun thing to get into and I was lucky to make it a life's work. Wilson Baker and I'm a biologist, specialized in field work. You're listening to voices that inspire.
Wilson Baker - I was lucky to make this my life’s work.

Wilson Baker is a biologist who specializes in field work. For nearly 60 years, Wilson Baker has followed his curiosity into the wild. A lifelong naturalist and hands-on biologist, his passion for the outdoors led him to Tall Timbers, where he turned a deep love for nature into a lasting legacy, one field study at a time.


Tell your inspirational story. Contact Kim Kelling at 850-645-6056 or kkelling@fsu.edu.