By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos

William Cardwell Baird attended the Los Alamos Ranch School (LARS)  between 1933 and 1936. After leaving LARS, he attended the Allendale Columbia School in Rochester, NY, and in 1940, graduated with a degree in engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca.

When war broke out, William joined a Seabee Battalion and served in the Pacific Theater. He was assigned to various island outposts, including Midway, Tinian, and Palau. On Palau, he saw combat action during landfall and was commended for valor. Most significantly, he was placed in charge of the construction of the airfield on Tinian Island, strategic in the delivery of the atomic bombs to Japan. It was after the war that he realized the connection between his engineering work and his old school at Los Alamos.

Lt. William Baird was awarded three commendations for his work—from the Seabees, the Pacific Fleet’s Fifth Amphibious Force, and the US Army Air Corps.

Following the war, William started the W. C. Baird Corporation and built numerous custom homes in the greater Rochester area. He was later appointed to the Red Cross Disaster Unit. Several organizations in Buffalo, NY, are named for William, including The Jacobs Neurological Institute and The William C. Baird MS Research Center, and The William Baird Clubhouse.

William Baird was born on April 8, 1918, in Rochester, NY, and died there on January 25, 2010.