Beatrice "Bea" Joan Baird (née Potter, 1901-1989) was a resident of Portland, Oregon. She began volunteering at the Portland Air Defense Filter Center in 1951, and in 1952 was promoted to the center's Sunday day director. In 1954, she attended a special two-week training course at the Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Florida. She was still a day director when the center closed in 1959.

Sources: Collection materials; "Two Attend AF Courses," Oregonian, December 5, 1954, page 19; "Air Force Sets Week's Deadline to End Sky Watchers After Nine Years of Volunteer Service to the United States," Oregonian, January 25, 1959, page 26; vital records via Ancestry.com.

The Portland Air Defense Filter Center was a facility in Portland, Oregon, that operated under the auspices of the Ground Observer Corps, a program in which civilian volunteers monitored for potential air attacks against the United States. The program had begun during World War II, but was reactivated in 1950. In 1956, the Portland Air Defense Filter Center absorbed the duties of the Seattle Filter Center, and was responsible for surveilling 52,000 square miles of air space over western Oregon and Washington. The center closed when the Ground Observer Corps was disbanded at the end of January 1959.

Sources: "Skywatchers To End Job," Oregonian, November 21, 1958, page 11; "Air Force Sets Week's Deadline to End Sky Watchers After Nine Years of Volunteer Service to the United States," Oregonian, January 25, 1959, page 26; "GOC Rites To Note End," Oregonian, January 31, 1959.