Tecumseh ‘65 grad to be honored with MSU’s Jack Breslin Lifetime Achievement Award in June

By MICKEY ALVARADO

Each year Michigan State University's Alumni Varsity Club selects a Spartan graduate whose post-college career has brought him great honor and by reflection to MSU and its intercollegiate athletic programs for the Jack Breslin Lifetime Achievement Award. This year's recipient is Don Baird, a 1965 graduate of Tecumseh High School.

Baird furthered his education after graduating from Tecumseh High School and received his B.S., from MSU in chemical and materials engineering in 1969. Continued education garnered Baird his M.S., in materials and mechanics in 1971 and three years later his PhD, in engineering science and mechanics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Baird now holds a Harry C. Wyatt Professorship of Chemical Engineering at Virginia Tech.

While it may be difficult for his current Hokie students to believe, Baird is a former elite MSU athlete who was a member of the Spartan's 1966 national championship football team. The “Game of the Century” between the second-ranked Spartans and top-ranked Irish ended in a 10-10 tie. Baird primarily played offensive guard and started three years, earning recognition with Academic All-American, Academic All-Big Ten and All Big Ten Honors.

“It's an interesting recognition,” said Baird. “For my personal career, the awards I get technically are more important but my university thinks it's a big deal, my own kids think it's a big deal and my students just can't believe they've got a professor who was pretty heavily involved in playing football.”

The Jack Breslin Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to Baird at the MSU Varsity Alumni 'S' Club's 2008 Golf Outing banquet on Wednesday, June 4, at Forest Akers West Golf Course. Baird will also be recognized during Varsity Alumni 'S' Weekend activities Oct. 2-4, during MSU's Homecoming Weekend.

Since joining Virginia Tech Baird has received several honors. He currently holds research interests in polymer processing and rheology, composite materials and processing and polymeric materials and properties. Baird received the Alumni Research Award in 1991 and the Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1998. The Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) International Award for Education was presented to Baird in 2002 and SPE's Research Award in 2003. He also earned Virginia Tech's Dean's Award for Excellence in Research in 2002. Baird is a member of the Virginia Tech Macromolecules and Interfaces Institute.

Baird is certainly not done in achieving everything he's set out to accomplish in life and said, “There are things that I would like to accomplish technically that are more important to me, in a way, but no one will be as excited about that.”

When sporting an Indians’ varsity football uniform back in ‘64, Baird was selected to the Huron League's All-Conference first team. The 5'10”, 190-pound back helped the “Hustlin'” Indians to a league title and had possibly his best performance in the season finale where Tecumseh beat county rival Adrian High School 19-7.

Memories of those faded years in Tecumseh still come back to Baird. In reflecting on what may have influenced his success outside of his small hometown he said that being told he couldn't do something always made him more likely to succeed. The teachers at Tecumseh High School who strived to advance their graduates to college also influenced Baird. He said that back when he was young it wasn't a question of if you were going to college; it was a question of where you were going to college. It happened that his brother attended Michigan State University so that was his preferred facility for further schooling when he came of age. Baird's father worked at Tecumseh Products and his family didn't live too far from the factory, on Patterson Street.

“It was amazing,” said Baird. “The valedictorian and I, the salutatorian, lived on the same street. We lived on the other side of the tracks so we were just a little hungrier than the other kids.”

He's become quite a Hokie fan since being at Virginia Tech for years and moving in next to the team's football coach but said he still bleeds Green and White to this day. He enjoyed nothing better than playing a joke on his brother-in-law who is an avid University of Michigan fan. Baird and his buddy got their hands on a Michigan football helmet years ago and turned it into a toilet paper dispenser for his brother-in-law to enjoy.
“Somehow I knew I was going to Michigan State even though I was being recruited by Ivy League schools,” said Baird. “For some reason I just said, hey, that's where I want to go. My brother went to Michigan State. I'd been going up there since seventh grade. They did right by me too.”