As Ainsley Baker accepts her integrative physiology degree this week, she joins a family history that dates back to 1886
It wasnât so much rebellion, Debbie Baker admits now, but stubbornness. She grew up hearing endless stories about the University of Colorado Boulder, and not just from her mother, but stories going back generations.
She remembers her grandfather telling her, âOf course youâre going to CUâ and thinking, âOf course?â
Ainsley Baker as a 3-year-old CU Buffs fan (left) and preparing to receive her bachelor's degree in integrative physiology this week.
So, she went to Texas Christian University in Fort Worth for her freshman year. And she loved itâhad a wonderful time, made great friends, âbut I never quite felt grounded,â she remembers.
She knew, in a way she couldnât really put into words, that she needed to transfer to CU Boulder, which she did for her sophomore year. In a geology class that year, riding the bus on a field trip to the canyon, she remembers looking out and seeing the spine of the Flatirons stretching to the sky, seeing what seemed like the entire Front Range spreading before her to the horizon and âfeeling a rush of âIâm grounded, this is where I need to be,ââ she says.
In coming to CU Boulder, sheâd come homeâthe fifth consecutive generation of her family to attend the university. This week, Debbieâs daughter Ainsley is donning a mortar board and gown to celebrate earning a bachelorâs degree in integrative physiology, becoming the sixth generation of her family to attend CU Boulder.
âAt this point, I think CU is pretty much in our DNA,â Debbie says with a laugh. âMy husband and I have tried really hard not to make our kids feel like this is where they have to go âŠâ
â⊠but itâs where weâve ended up wanting to go,â Ainsley adds. Her next-younger brother, Brennan, just completed his freshman year at CU Boulder studying quantitative finance.
A family history
Edith Corbin (left, with father Victor Noxon behind her) graduated CU Boulder in 1918; her son, David Corbin (right, with wife, Mary Jane, and their daughter, Nancy), graduated in 1948. Nancy would go on to study fine art at CU Boulder.
The familyâs roots through CU Boulder are almost a century-and-a-half deep, stretching back to 1886 and the universityâs fourth graduating class. When Victor Noxon, Debbieâs great-great-grandfather, began his engineering studies, the university consisted of one buildingâOld Main. His graduating class totaled sixâfive men and one woman.
Noxon, who was grandfather of CU Boulder alum and astronaut Scott Carpenter and who started the Boulder County Farmer and Miner newspaper, was father to three sons and six daughtersâall of whom attended CU Boulder. Among them was Edith Corbin, Debbieâs great-grandmother, who graduated in 1918 and became a nurse. Her son, David Corbin, graduated in electrical engineering in 1948, and his daughter Nancy studied fine art.
âBoth my parents went here,â says Nancy, now Nancy Heaney, and her daughter Debbie adds, âIn fact, she was born one month before graduation.â
Nancyâs parents courted on the bridge over Varsity Pond and, after they married, lived in a Quonset hut on campus.
So, as Debbie walked around campus as a student, so many spots held memories from the stories sheâs heard all her life. Sheâd grown up in Littleton and came to Boulder and the university campus occasionally for football games or the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, but it was different now that she was a student studying communication and pursuing an elementary education certificate. She was adding her own stories to the growing family chain of lore.
She was part of Kappa Alpha Theta, which had been her grandmotherâs sorority. She met her husband, Mark, in Kittredge Hall and auditioned for womenâs choir in Macky Auditorium: âI sang in womenâs choir for one semester, then in co-ed choir, and we always sang in Macky for Christmas,â Debbie recalls. âThat was always such a special experience, and I remember my grandfather would come and just beam.â
Mark and Debbie Baker kiss on the former spiral stairs at Old Main on one of the last nights of their senior year (left) and recreate the moment almost two decades later (right).
She and Mark, who represents the second generation of his family to graduate CU Boulder (plus a grandfather who taught in CU Boulderâs U.S. Navy ROTC program), played on champion intramural Ultimate Frisbee teams on campus. At the end of their senior year in 1996, they got an old film camera and ran around campus one evening issuing dares and taking pictures: splashing in a fountain, walking on the shelves in Norlin Library, kissing on the old spiral staircase at Old Main.
âEverywhere I look (on campus) thereâs a memory,â Debbie says.
âCU has felt like homeâ
When Ainsleyâwho is the oldest of four, with three younger brothersâwas thinking about college, she considered a few out-of-state possibilities, âbut not seriously,â she says. Even though her parents never pressured her to attend CU Boulder, sheâd grown up hearing their stories and attending occasional football games, so by the time she needed to commit to a university, âI was pretty excited to go to CU.â
Her first year coincided with the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, so her classes were virtual. She completed chemistry labs in her bathroom and remembers concerning her roommates when she burned aluminum foil with magnesium citrate.
The nearby mountains and trails helped keep her grounded that year, and when in-person restrictions began lifting her sophomore year, she was ready to dive in: as a Young Life leader, playing intramural soccer, attending football games, playing cross-campus miniature golf with tennis balls, storming the field after CUâs win against Nebraska. She even appeared in a background shot of the documentary about Coach Prime.
Brennan, Debbie and Ainsley Baker (left to right) and Nancy Heaney (right) represent three of six generations who have studied at CU Boulder. (Photo: Kylie Clarke)
And when it was time for Brennan to consider college, he also looked into a few out-of-state options, but like his sister, it was almost a foregone conclusion.
âA lot of friends told me, âYouâre going to CU,â and itâs actually where I wanted to go,â he says, adding that itâs close enough to home and family in Highlands Ranch, but just far enough away âthat I can have my own experience.â
âItâs been really fun to have this time with Brennan here,â Ainsley says. âWe would have lunch every Wednesday, and Iâd get texts from my friends whenever they had a Brennan sighting on campus.â
Like Ainsley, Brennan learned to balance school and a social lifeâplaying intramural soccer with his sister, getting active in Young Life, riding a bike to campus in the middle of a snowstorm, getting trapped in an elevator with his friends and singing songs to pass the time until firefighters could pry the doors open. He also is part of the Dean's Fellows Program and President's Leadership Class, as was his father.Ìę
Heâll be cheering for Ainsley as she accepts her diploma this weekâshe actually finished class in December and is working at Boulder Community Hospital while she applies to nursing schoolâand trying not to pressure their two younger brothers about attending CU.
âI think our family has been really lucky to have this connection to such a wonderful place,â Debbie says. âFor generations, CU has felt like home.â
Unless otherwise noted, photos courtesy Debbie Baker
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