Rollin H. Baker passed away on 12 November 2007, 1 day after reaching his 91st birthday. Rollin was a living legend, famous for his pioneering research on biogeography and natural history of Mexican mammals, especially rodents, for his contributions to the understanding of Michigan mammals, and for being a mentor and friend to all young, aspiring mammalogists. Rollin Baker's career lasted way beyond his traditional retirement, and in his final months he was still active in the Texas Society of Mammalogists and in conservation issues in Texas. Indeed, when he was 89 years old he presented a guest lecture in mammalogy for appreciative graduate students at Texas Tech University. Rollin was born in Cordova, Illinois, on 11 November 1916 but grew up in Texas, the state that he always considered home. His childhood interest in the natural world was encouraged and supported by his parents. In his autobiography, published in Going Afield (Baker 2005), Rollin explained that his focus on mammals largely grew from reading classic works by Seton, Burgess, and Hornaday. He also described how, at age 11, he collected his 1st cotton rats near his home in Houston and carted them home, alive, in his wagon! This early experience not only piqued his curiosity but also literally began a life-long fascination with the cotton rat. Ultimately, Rollin shaped a career around his interest in nature and the outdoors, and this is what engaged him intellectually and emotionally until the end of his life. Along the trail of his life, he made wonderful and lasting contributions as a scientist, educator, historian, raconteur, and warm-hearted friend. As he often put it, his fondness for small mammals was rooted in emotion rather than in a cold-hearted “use” of nature's noblemen as a means to test dispassionate hypotheses. Rollin's curiosity about small mammals and their secret lives drove and characterized most of his research, and it should be no surprise that most of his students acquired similar interests or, at the very least, shared his wonder at the diversity, distribution, and history of small mammals. Rollin began his formal education with a B.A. in zoology from the University of Texas in 1937. While at the University of Texas, he was a member of an NCAA All-American Swimming Team in 1936 and recipient of the Nagel Trophy for “Sportsmanship” in 1937. For his lifetime commitment to the swimming program, he received the Frank Irwin Award “for Outstanding Achievements and Contributions to Texas Swimming” in 1992. He completed an M.S. in entomology from Texas A&M University in 1938 and a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Kansas in 1948. In his autobiography, Rollin wrote that his professional life as a mammalogist began after his M.S. when he seized an opportunity to explore mammalogy with guidance and collaboration from William B. Davis and Walter P. Taylor, both of whom resided at Texas A&M. Rollin took a position with the Texas Game, Fish, and Oyster Commission that focused on game animals rather than small mammals, and Rollin relished the fieldwork. It was probably in rural Texas that Rollin developed his immense people skills—a feature of his personality that endeared him to strangers, friends, students, and colleagues. Another even more important aspect of Rollin's sojourn as a game biologist in Texas involved a woman named Mary Waddell. Mary, the daughter of an Eagle Lake game warden, married Rollin on 22 March 1939. Together they raised a daughter, Elizabeth Alice, and 2 sons, Bruce Rollin and Byron Laurence. Less