Thelma Shoher Baker (April 6, 1924 – January 5, 2021) was an American educator and anthropologist, on the faculty of the Pennsylvania State University from the 1970s until her retirement in 1986.
[11] In 1985, she gave an invited lecture at the University of Hawai'i, on "Changing Attitudes Toward the Elderly: A Samoan Case Study", and consulted on anthropology projects of the Indian Statistical Institute's Anthropometry and Human Genetics Unit.
[12] She and her husband did anthropological fieldwork in the Peruvian Andes[13] and American Samoa,[14] sometimes with their four children in tow.
[15] In addition to her own research,[6] she co-authored work with her husband, and informally contributed to his career as a reader, editor, and social hostess.
[15] Thelma Shoher married biological anthropologist and World War II veteran Paul Thornell Baker in 1949.