The world can have a strange way of bringing people into your life and sometimes has a cruel way of taking them away. Only in death have I truly come to appreciate and understand the ripple effect Michael Baynes had throughout the second half of my life and how those ripples will travel on in me and the lives I touch going forward.
I was first introduced to Michael Baynes or MB before I ever knew his name or had a sense of what he looked like. As an undergraduate student at Hamline University I had the opportunity to work two years as a Resident Assistant (RA). My Hall Director my second year, who was also one of my first true mentors, would often talk about what an important role his first Hall Director had on his life. I have no memory if MB was ever mentioned by name, but I have a vivid sense of just how much my supervisor admired and had been impacted by him. In a similar vein, I would not be where I am at today, if not for my mentor. He is one of the main reasons I entered the field of student affairs in higher education and I believe he was only in a position to be my supervisor and mentor because of the role Mike Baynes had in his life.
At the end of my senior year of college I was filled with incredible drive and passion for social justice, but I lacked the knowledge and experience needed to work toward effective change. Some people who believed in me at Hamline suggested I talk to someone at the University of Minnesota that they thought could help me turn my passion into action and outcomes. With that, I showed up in the early summer of 1997 at a building I would go on to work in these last nine years, Comstock Hall, to sit down for a hour of coaching and teaching by Mike. While the details of that conversation escape me, I remember my sense of just how much he knew about social justice and I was grateful for how willing he was to help out an overly ambitious and under qualified student trying to translate his passion into change. I have long credited that conversation as being one of a couple key interventions that put me and the efforts of so many that spring and summer on a pathway to make a difference at Hamline University. The result of that journey was the creation of the Commitment to Community program and it still lives on after all these years.
In the summer of 2003 I would go on to work professionally at the University of Minnesota and my office is housed in the same building I met with Mike in during the summer of 1997. At that point our paths had crossed a few more times over the years at conferences and through mutual friends. I even learned that my new supervisor was a long time friend of MB. Mike came back into my life in a more substantial way a few years later when my wife took a job working with him at of St. Catherine University (St. Kates). The two of them hit if off, which is no surprise, as they were both ahead of the curve around caring for people and social justice on a campus that sometimes struggles to understand and capitalize on the incredible diversity and talent within its community. A lesson I learned years ago is how struggle can bind people together in powerful ways and I believe Mike and my wife became linked together by helping so many students manage and overcome their struggles on a campus that can sometimes be challenging and in a world that could be unforgiving.
I ran into Mike a number of times over the last six years, but the most memorable time was when I was invited as a guest of my wife over to his new condo a few years ago. At this small gathering were people who loved Mike dearly including my mentor who just happened to be in town from Vermont. I remember thinking that day how lucky and strange it is that my world had overlapped so frequently with Mike over the years.
On Friday I took the afternoon off, as I sometimes do, to see a movie. When I came out of the movie I had a text message from my wife asking me to call her ASAP. It turned out that she had last received a communication from Mike at 11:26 AM that morning in the form of an email congratulating her on her new position at the University of Minnesota. He was found dead only a few hours later and she had just found out. It is both tragic and fitting that Michael Baynes will now be center stage in the final chapter of her life at St. Kate's and deep in her heart during her transition back to a campus Mike once called home. I then had to call my mentor and friend to tell him that one of his mentors and friends had died.
I do not think Michael Baynes and I would have called the other person a friend, but we were very friendly with each other and closely linked by people we both loved and cared about deeply. We are connected not only by having great taste in exceptional people, but I am not sure my life would have ended up where it is without the ripple effects of Michael Baynes playing such a significant role. My first true mentor, my chosen profession, and my path around social justice all have the deep impressions of his footprints. Any good that I have done and the impact I have had on people whose lives I have touched owe their thanks to a man most of them have never met and now, never will. I have a feeling that I am just one of hundreds of stories showing the ripples of Mike Baynes and that there are thousands of people whose lives were enriched because of the work of him and the people he impacted and inspired.
Goodbye Mike. I am not sure if you ever wondered about the legacy of your life or work as I often ponder about my own, but I hope you knew or know now that your legacy is remarkable and the echoes of your life will travel on indefinitely. Thank you for the wonderful role you had in my life and in the lives of people that I care about.
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