Glenwood Baum

Glenwood Gill Baum passed away on June 13, 2025, in the SECU Hospice House in Smithfield,

North Carolina, at the age of 87.

He was born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, on September 17, 1937, and married Peggy

Meekins in 1956. Together they raised four children in Hopewell, Virginia. Glenn worked in the

printing industry, mostly as a compositor for The Hopewell News. Upon retirement, they moved

to the Outer Banks where they lived for 14 years before moving to the Clayton/Smithfield area

to be closer to family.

Our dad lived a small and, in many ways, ordinary life, but he made a big impression on those

who met him. He was kind and generous to a fault.

He was a man who never wanted to sit still and do nothing. From long hours of work, to

yardwork and volunteer activities with his church community at West Hopewell (Va.)

Presbyterian Church, he stayed busy. Even in retirement he worked multiple jobs to occupy his

time and engage with other people. He became a volunteer fireman during his retirement and

was very involved with the Collington Volunteer Fire Department, from training to fundraisers,

as well as helping organize their rehab unit. He also volunteered his time at a food bank in

Clayton.

During his lifetime, Dad donated close to 100 pints of blood through the American Red Cross.

He spent hours researching his family genealogy and was interested in Civil War history and

archaeology.

He was a loving and devoted husband to his best friend and high school sweetheart. It is

impossible to consider his life without Mom in it. They were married on the same day that Elvis

Presley appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and were driving to their honeymoon destination

when Dad lost his wallet and most of their honeymoon money. (They still managed to see Elvis

on TV.)

Dad was a proud father and spoke fondly of his four children. We have great childhood

memories of going to the drive-in theater, with the four kids piling into the back of the family

station wagon, dashing to the car in our pajamas in broad daylight with a grocery bag filled with

TV Time Popcorn, only to be carried by Dad to bed at the end of the night.

The family enjoyed many summer nights at Leonard’s Campground at Lake Chesdin in Virginia,

and later backpacking along the Appalachian Trail.

In many ways, he was the fifth child at the dinner table when we were growing up, cutting up

and telling jokes, devolving into uncontrollable laughter.

Dad never met a cookie he didn’t like. He never left a speck of food on a plate, and we will

forever associate the sound of a bowl being scraped clean with our father.

Dad may have never aspired to live a big life and have a giant impact on the world, but his love,

his friendship, his charity work, and his work ethic left a big impression on everyone he met.

Dad is survived by his wife of 68 years, Peggy Meekins Baum, and his four children: Stephen

Baum (and his spouse, Lecia Baum) of Atlanta, Ga.; Kenneth Baum of Asheville, N.C.; Scott

Baum of Baltimore, Md.; and Ann Marie Baum (and her spouse Farnum Brown) of Raleigh, N.C.;

as well as three grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. He is also survived by his brother

Terry Baum of Greensboro, N.C.; as well as numerous cousins, nieces and nephews.

A celebration of life for Glenn Baum will take place on Saturday, July 19, 1pm-4pm, at Hillyer

Memorial Christian Church, 718 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, N.C.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Collington Volunteer Fire

Department (108 Schoolhouse Road, Kill Devil Hills, NC 27948, or through their website,

www.colingtonfd.com).