Long-time campus leader dies in Arizona

Ineva Reilly Baldwin, a longtime resident and civic leader of Madison and a former assistant dean of women at the university, died Monday, Oct. 2, in Tucson, Ariz., at age 96.

She was the widow of Ira Lawrence Baldwin, who died in 1999 at age 103. He was a professor emeritus of bacteriology and vice president emeritus of the University of Wisconsin. In the 1960s and 70s, the couple traveled extensively in South America and the Far East for the U.S. State Department, assisting developing countries to build educational and research facilities.

Ineva Baldwin was born in Indianapolis, Ind., March 29, 1904, to Peter C. and Ineva G. Reilly. Her father was the founder of Reilly Industries, Inc., in Indianapolis. She studied at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Geneva in Switzerland and the University of Colorado, where she received her bachelor’s degree. She returned to the University of Wisconsin for graduate study, earning her master’s degree in botany in 1928.

During the 1930s, Baldwin was on university staffs at Colorado, Northwestern and Wisconsin, where she both taught and counseled undergraduate students and began her career in university administration.

World War II interrupted her academic career. Enlisting in the Coast Guard Reserves, she attained the rank of lieutenant commander, the highest rank achieved by a woman at that time.

Baldwin returned to the UW in 1946, serving as assistant dean of women in the College of Letters and Science until she married Ira Baldwin in 1954.

She served as a volunteer for many community and campus organizations. She was active with the Red Cross, Attic Angels Association, and the Wisconsin State Historical Society, and also served on the advisory council of the Elvehjem Museum of Art. The Baldwins were honored in 1981 with the Wisconsin Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award.

Survivors include children Helen Baldwin Guptill, Pinetop, Ariz., and Robert Baldwin, Portola Valley, Calif.; sisters-in-law Elizabeth Reilly and Jane Reilly of Indianapolis; and nieces and nephews.