“Life is a dead-end street,” a quote from H.L. Mencken that perfectly describes Dr. Baldwin on an everyday basis. His unique life experiences influence his teaching style and everyday interactions on and off campus.
Baldwin has been at ABAC for 10 years, five as an assistant professor and five as an associate professor. While finishing his Ph. D., he was applying for positions and exploring his options.
He and his current wife proceeded to take out a map and started narrowing his job search by where they wanted to end up. “It’s got an interstate; it’s reasonable distance from an ocean… we just ruled out places we weren’t interested in living.”
He starts his morning reading whatever he assigns his students for the day. Baldwin said, “I focus mostly on teaching and preparing for class, I do my services, then work on my own writing.”
“Being in class and seeing the expression on students and an idea crosses their mind that they never really considered before and they have that whoa moment. That’s money for me,” said Baldwin.
He spends other moments of his day furthering that student engagement, whether discussing their grades or personal lives. Baldwin said, “I’ll just stop whatever I’m doing, and we can talk about whatever they want.”
When he moved to Tifton from Arkansas, he hoped to continue a passion for tennis. He was disappointed in the lack of attention to the sport here rather than his prior home.
He then focused his energy on buying a brand-new and never lived in house. The yard was just as unlived in as the house, holding no type of plant life. “I’ve planted 25 trees, 100 shrubs, and flowers… I’m trying to get some more color in the yard,” said Baldwin.
Improving his yard came in due time. “I think one of the downsides of setting rigid goals, you can get mono focused on achieving one goal they miss out on an opportunity… I try to have an open-ended outlook,” he said.
Baldwin spent his younger years in Riverside, California, a semi-rural community. He came from a working-class family. His father was a tile contractor, and his mom was a postal worker.
As he grew up, there were blooming orange groves that left the whole city fragrant and full of life until the 1980s. There were major environmental changes when he was finishing high school, with all the orange trees being cut down and replaced with big buildings.
At 24, Baldwin was married and living in Colorado. The two decided to end things mutually and split what they had down to a T. They even shared custody of a dog throughout the years.
After he and his first wife split initially, Baldwin put all his belongings in storage and drove to Tucson, Arizona. He got a stack of books to read and supplies to camp.