Marion Baumgardner Papers

Marion Fisher Baumgardner was born on February 7th, 1926, as the fifth son of Eva and Joe Baumgardner of Wellington, Texas. Baumgardner earned his Bachelor of Sciences in agriculture (with a major in agronomy) from Texas Tech University. After graduating from Texas Tech in 1950, Baumgardner accepted a three-year appointment from the Methodist Board of Global Ministries to teach soil and crop science at the Allahabal Agricultural Institute in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India. Baumgardner would later claim that those three years in India were “a life changing experience,” and would be commissioned to return in 1957 before being rejected, as India refused to grant visas to him and his wife. At Purdue University, Baumgardner would go on to earn his Master’s degree in soil science, and his Ph.D degree in soil mineralogy and chemistry.

Baumgardner worked, lectured, and/or traveled to more than 100 countries over the course of his life, and consulted with organizations such as the Ford Foundation, U.S. Agency for National Development, Africare, and the Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. His professional life was marked by a desire to teach “global awareness,” and would contribute to his work as a professor in Purdue’s Agronomy Department from 1966-1993. In his personal life, however, Baumgardner’s biggest passion was in genealogy, with extensive research being done on his family history, as well as having an important role in reunions in the U.S. and Europe for the descendants of a common ancestor, Jacob Baumgartner of Sweden. Additionally, Baumgardner was an influential figure to the conception of University Place, a retirement community close to Purdue's West Lafayette campus. He would live there with his wife, Maralee Baumgardner, until the end of his life. Baumgardner passed away on August 24th, 2020, at 94 years old.