Gerald A. (Tod) Baseden, of Wilmington, Delaware, age 96, died peacefully on July 10, 2024, surrounded by members of his loving family.
Tod was born in England as the oldest of four children. His father, M. William Baseden, was a member of the World War I British Royal Navy team that pioneered the technique of landing planes on aircraft carriers at sea. His mother, Viola Hicks Baseden, was the granddaughter of Walter Hicks Sr., 1851 founder of the still-thriving and family-owned St. Austell Brewery in Cornwall, England.
Tod graduated in 1945 from St. Edwards School, Oxford, then served three years in the British Army before attending London University, graduating in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry. While there he met fellow student Margaret (Pegs) Pratt, his lifelong love, and they married in 1952.
Tod worked for four years as a chemist for Dunlop Rubber in Birmingham, England before emigrating to the United States with Pegs and their growing young family of three children: Catherine, Sarah, and Jennifer. He went ahead of the family to find a job, crossing the Atlantic Ocean on the Queen Mary, and by November had accepted an offer of employment with DuPont in Wilmington. Pegs and the three girls joined him in the US in early 1957. During those early years in America, three more children followed: Steven, Judith, and Alan.
Tod retired from DuPont as a Technical Consultant after 35 years’ service in 1992. He was a member and former Clerk of Birmingham Friends Meeting, near West Chester, and a member of DuPont Country Club for many years. In retirement he volunteered for nonprofit community organizations that included Sojourners Place (a homeless shelter) and answering calls for the former crisis hotline Contact. In recent years, he took a leading role in North Wilmington to preserve Jester Park and the Jester Farmhouse for community benefit.
His vast enjoyment of life was also evident in the sheer diversity of his other personal interests, ranging from bridge, carpentry, and scuba diving to camping, birding, photography, soaring, golf, and raising orchids.
At the time of his death, Tod had spent nearly half a century in the US, yet he maintained ties to the family brewery in Cornwall and warm connections with family in England, Northern Ireland, New Zealand and Canada as well as Pegs’ family in England and East Africa.
Tod was predeceased by his wife, Pegs, and his three siblings (Shirley Harper in England, Gillian Curry in Northern Ireland, and Richard Baseden in New Zealand). He is survived by all six children: Catherine (and husband Michael) Morris, Sarah Hart, Jennifer Baseden, Steven (and Maylene) Baseden, Judith Baseden, and Alan (and Debra) Baseden as well as 16 grandchildren, 8 great-grandchildren, many treasured overseas family members, and companion dachshunds Horatio and Juno. He loved them all dearly.
A memorial service for Tod will be held on Sept. 21, 2024 at 11am at Birmingham Friends Meeting, 1245 Birmingham Road, West Chester, PA 19382. Interment will be private. Donations to Birmingham Friends Meeting are suggested in lieu of flowers; please make checks payable to the meeting and send to P.O. Box 175, Pocopson, PA 19366-9998.
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