Roger Baty

About

Roger Baty is an Emeritus Professor whose life has been guided by a simple but expansive conviction, drawn from Buckminster Fuller: “On Spaceship Earth, there are no passengers. Everyone is crew.” For Roger, that idea is not metaphor but mandate. From his early years growing up in Beirut—where, as a young man, he helped excavate a cave revealing Phoenician skeletons before a sudden collapse nearly ended the dig—to his decades at the University of Redlands (1969–2002), Roger has lived as if responsibility for the world is shared and active. A founding figure in Johnston College, later Director of the University Library, and then a full-time Professor and major presence in the Sociology and Anthropology department, Roger embraced what he calls the “beauty of Redlands”: once you are in, you can reinvent yourself. Archaeology, anthropology, international living in Mexico, mentoring students who went on to lead major archaeological firms—Roger’s career unfolded less as a ladder and more as a branching tree.

In retirement, that branching has only deepened. Roger speaks of a “Tree of Life” model—an evolving framework for sustaining community, energy, learning, and faith. His long relationship with the Episcopal Church, shaped by his time in England as an Anglican, now fuels projects in sustainability and solar power, including fundraising through artistic and educational T-shirts featuring thinkers like Fuller and Carl Sagan. He tends medicinal plants in his backyard, champions indigenous knowledge, and continues to mentor across generations. Along with his wife, Phebe, Roger's philanthropy helped sustain experiential education in anthropology and sociology, supporting internships, fieldwork, and community-based learning—what he calls “bringing the world into the classroom.” For Roger, education is not abstract; it is lived, local, and relational.

At heart, Roger resists crisis thinking in favor of what he calls “anticipatory management”—planning with care rather than reacting in fear. He is proud not of titles but of students: those who changed disciplines after field experiences, those who now lead programs, those who speak truth to power. His life is animated by sayings, seeds, family, friends, creativity, caring for the environment, and long horizons. Retirement, for Roger, is not withdrawal but redesign. On Spaceship Earth, he is still very much crew.