From the moment Dave Baer came to Southern Illinois University Carbondale for a campus visit nearly 60 years ago, he quickly realized the special opportunities it could provide.
“What impressed me the most was I saw (handicapped accessible) bathroom doors and was trying to figure out what was going on. I found out they had created a camp that if somebody had a physical disability they were able to go to class. I was impressed by that. They thought of the extra mile. I had ever seen anyone go that extra mile.”
That “extra mile” would ultimately lead Baer, who initially came to SIU working toward a rehabilitation field to learn to deal with children with disabilities, into a 37-year career in law enforcement as security director and later police chief at Bradley University before retiring in 2010. During his career Baer was president of the Illinois Campus Law Enforcement Administrators and secretary for the Peoria County Association of Chiefs of Police.
It was at SIU that Baer, who graduated from the criminology and criminal justice program in 1971, met his late wife, Cheryl, who was an SIU alumna in sociology. The criminology and criminal justice program is within the School of Justice and Public Safety.
Baer came to SIU in the early 1960s and was drafted to join the U.S. Navy during his sophomore year. On the advice of a Navy veteran who was an SIU student at the time, Baer went into a meteorology-related program. He served in the U.S. Navy for nearly four years and returned to school with an eye toward completing his bachelor’s degree quickly.
“I enjoyed every minute of it but I lost four years,” Baer said.
Because he had many friends in the law enforcement field, Baer was intrigued with the new criminal justice program offerings and would be one of the first graduates of the then-Administration of Justice program.
It was also during this time that Baer who was a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, reconnected with his wife, Cheryl, after meeting her for a bowling date prior to leaving school for the Navy.
Baer recalled his impression of SIU’s security force, now the Department of Public Safety, while he was a student.
“I was very much impressed that Southern Illinois had a very strong campus police unit of their own,” he said. “The Saluki Patrol they had on campus, especially at night when students were walking, was a great comfort.”
Soon after Baer graduated from SIU, he returned to Peoria and learned of the security director’s position at Bradley University. It was while he was at Bradley and after conversations with the Peoria police chief, that Baer worked with state legislators to pass laws allowing private universities in Illinois to create their own police departments. Bradley became the first private university in the state to have its own police department working in concert with local police.
During his career, Baer’s work included assisting the FBI and providing valuable information on a 9/11 attack collaborator who was later sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Married for more than 37 years, the Baers, who never had children, fondly recalled their days at SIU Carbondale and often talked of establishing scholarships to help present SIU students.
“We had graduated, we had a nice time there and developed some great friendships there,” he said.
After his wife’s death, Baer went on to establish three scholarships:
- David A. Baer, Cheryl A. Walker Baer, and Naomi D. Baer Endowed Scholarship. The scholarship, which also honors his late mother, benefits undergraduate and graduate students in criminology and criminal justice.
- David A. Baer, Cheryl A. Walker Baer, and Naomi D. Baer Endowed Scholarship in Sociology. The scholarship is for sociology students.
- Baer Endowed Scholarship for SIU School of Law. For enrolled SIU law students, preference is given to Bradley University alumni for first-year law students. If no Bradley University graduates qualify, the scholarship may be awarded to non-Bradley graduates.
Baer noted that his mother had a strong high school academic background and work ethic and took on many different challenges during her life. In one of her last jobs, she went from unloading and stocking women’s clothing in a department store to being promoted to store bookkeeper because the owner was impressed by her work ethic.
To Baer, the scholarships exemplify the hard work and opportunities that came to him, his wife and mother – the same hopes he has for the students who receive them. He wants students to embrace the opportunities they have in college.
“It opens the door to what your future can be. For me, it was coming back to the university from the Navy,” he said. “My mindset was that I have to put my nose to the grindstone and do whatever I can to achieve that goal and what my future can be.”