Baugh, Odin 1918- (Odin A. Baugh)

PERSONAL:

Born December 24, 1918, in Nevada, MO; son of Fred E. (a signal maintainer) and Luella Lydia (a homemaker) Baugh; married Nearine Marcus (an educator), August 21, 1948; children: Michelle Nearine and Gregory Odin. Education: Whitworth University, B.A., 1947; Princeton Theological Seminary, M.Div., 1950. Religion: "Protestant (Presbyterian)."

ADDRESSES:

Home—Spokane Valley, WA.

CAREER:

Church minister, Quincy, WA, 1950-53; church minister, Spokane Valley, WA, 1953-67; church minister, Kalispell, MT, 1967-85. Military service: U.S. Army, 1942-46; became staff sergeant.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Kiwanis International, "Every Day Hero" award; Whitworth University, alumni service award; recipient of honorary doctorate of divinity from Whitworth University.

WRITINGS:

A Place Called South Wenatchee, O.A. Baugh (Spokane, WA), 1992.

John Frank Stevens: American Trailblazer, Arthur H. Clark (Spokane, WA), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Odin Baugh is an American church minister. Baugh graduated from Whitworth University in 1947 with a bachelor of arts degree in history, having to continue his studies after serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. By the 1950s he earned a master of divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and pursued a career as a church minister in Washington state and Montana. After retiring, he began writing books. In 1992 Baugh published A Place Called South Wenatchee, a book about a small railroad community that was annexed by a neighboring city shortly after the book was published.

In 2005 Baugh published his second book, John Frank Stevens: American Trailblazer. The biography covers the life of John Stevens, a railroad surveyor and engineer who worked across the United States, Canada, and Russia. Oregon Historical Quarterly contributor Craig Holstine wrote that "Baugh does an admirable job of tracking Stevens around the world." That said, however, Holstine thought that "this biography would have benefited from the use of more primary source materials in documenting John Frank Stevens's life." Holstine also said that the book's "readability is good overall," but noted that "editing and better illustrations would have improved the book considerably." Holstine concluded that "this informative biography brings us closer to knowing an important figure in our history."

Baugh told CA: "I am an eighty- eight-year-old church minister retired for twenty-three years. Shortly after retiring, I had a desire to write, having written sermons for years. I thought about writing a novel about John the Baptist featured in the New Testament in the Bible, but I discovered I don't have enough imagination for writing novels. Since I majored in history at university, that subject seemed to interest me.

"I grew up in a railroad community next to the city of Wenatchee in central Washington state. It was known as ‘South Wenatchee.’ I figured the city of Wenatchee would eventually annex that community and South Wenatchee would be no more. In view of that possibility, I wrote my first book titled A Place Called South Wenatchee (1992). The book sold out. My expectation became a fact. The city of Wenatchee did annex South Wenatchee and made it a Wenatchee suburb.

"Moving to Spokane Valley, Washington, after having lived in Montana, I recalled some of my earlier years of working on the Great Northern Railroad in Wenatchee. There I had learned about an earlier railroad employee named John Stevens. He had worked on the Great Northern also and had discovered Marias Pass across the Rocky Mountains for that railroad and later discovered Stevens Pass across the Cascade Mountains for the same railroad. In addition he had helped design the Panama Canal.

"His many achievements were so outstanding I decided to write about him for my second book, John Frank Stevens. Stevens' accomplishments make them interesting reading."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, May, 2006, A.M. Strauss, review of John Frank Stevens: American Trailblazer, p. 1623.

Journal of the West, summer, 2006, Forrest D. Pass, review of John Frank Stevens.

Oregon Historical Quarterly, spring, 2007, Craig Holstine, review of John Frank Stevens.

Pacific Historical Review, February, 2007, H. Roger Grant, review of John Frank Stevens, p. 124.

Pacific Northwest Quarterly, winter, 2006, W. Thomas White, review of John Frank Stevens.

Roundup Magazine, April, 2006, Doris R. Meredith, review of John Frank Stevens, p. 26.

SciTech Book News, March, 2006, review of John Frank Stevens.

Western Historical Quarterly, summer, 2007, Gordon Chappell, review of John Frank Stevens.

ONLINE

Wenatchee World,http://www.wenworld.com/ (May 8, 2007), Wilfred R. Woods, review of A Place Called South Wenatchee.

[Sketch reviewed by wife, Nearine Baugh.]