Baker, Milo S. (Milo Samuel) (1868-1961) | University and Jepson Herbaria Archives, University of California, Berkeley

Milo Samuel Baker was born on July 19 1868 in Strawberry Point, Iowa.  In 1875 his family moved to Oak Run, Tehama County, California.  He attended school in San Jose and became a teacher in Santa Clara and Modoc Counties. He graduated from the University of California with a degree in Chemistry and taught at Lowell High School in San Francisco from 1901-1906. After working as a rancher, he went back to teaching in 1922 at Santa Rosa High School and then became a professor at Santa Rosa Junior College.

He collected plants in on eastern Shasta and Lassen counties while walking from Redding to Bieber to begin his teaching job in Modoc County. In 1894 he and F. P. Nutting collected in Lassen and Modoc Counties. His botanical interests included the genus Viola and the flora of the North Coast Ranges of California. His herbarium, rich in North Coast Ranges specimens, is now housed at Sonoma State University.