In Memoriam: Bill Baitinger

2020-03-28

Writer(s): Steve Scherer, Graham Cooks

Our colleague and alumnus William E. Baitinger (M.S., 1959) passed away on March 17.  Bill was 86 years old and a resident at Westminster Village in West Lafayette. He was an early research scientist in our chemical instrumentation group working closely with Jon Amy.

Amy and Baitinger were first authors on an early study (GC/MS, 1965) in Professor Fred McLafferty’s NIH supported mass spectrometry center where he played a major role in setting up the ‘super-resolution’ Hitachi RMH-2 mass spectrometer. Bill Baitinger also worked closely with Nick Winograd on ESCA and on SIMS in the ‘70s and with Richard Caprioli on peptide analysis

“Bill was Jon Amy’s right-hand person,” remembered Professor R. Graham Cooks.

“He was the nicest, most friendly person you could ever meet. Very smart. And a special personality. I worked with Bill from day one when I arrived at Purdue in January 1971. We worked day and night together for the next ten years,” Cooks added.

After briefly serving as Amy Facility director, Bill finished his career in central administration PRF patents where he retired in 2011.

Condolences to Bill’s three children, their families, and wife Paula, whom he met when they were both chemistry tutors on campus.

Listen to Bill's 2010 oral history in Purdue Archives and Special Collections.