Professor Emeritus Jost Baum passed away on May 26, 2020 following a long illness. He was 91.
Professor Baum emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1933 shortly following Hitler’s rise to power. He grew up in Chicago and following service in the Army graduated from The University of Chicago with a BA in 1950 and a JD in 1953. Following law school he studied at the London School Of Economics.
Upon his return to Chicago, Professor Baum focused his law practice on counseling corporations. He was chief legal counsel for several publicly traded corporations in the 1960s.
In 1971, he moved his family to Palo Alto and accepted a position as an Associate Professor at Santa Clara, where taught until 2000. He taught Business Organizations, Corporate Finance and Secured Transactions. He was named Professor of the Year in 1974 and in that same year founded Santa Clara’s JD/MBA program. In 1977, he started the Law School’s summer study abroad program in Oxford. Over the subsequent years he and Professor Bob Peterson continued growing the program to cities on three continents Professor Baum enjoyed the summers abroad tremendously and the opportunity it provided to get to know his students more closely.
Following his retirement, Professor Baum kept active, studying art at Stanford University and becoming a docent at its Cantor Arts Center.
Professor Baum is survived by his wife of 56 years Heidi, son Ed and daughter-in-law Lisa Siegel, son Peter, son Rick and daughter-in-law Ashley Anderson and grandchildren Hannah and Joseph.
