Christopher Jacob von Baeyer, born Oct. 1, 1941, passed away after a brave and inspiring two-year battle with neuroendocrine cancer on Oct. 21, 2013. Born to Annemarie and Eric von Baeyer, Christopher grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and attended Shaker Heights High School. He then went on to The Juilliard School of Music where he was a student of Leonard Rose and Claus Adams, and where he earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in music studies and chamber music.

Christopher was a cellist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and one of its youngest members, before accepting a teaching position at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. It was here that he met his first wife, Sue Collins von Baeyer. He joined the faculty at New College in Sarasota, Fla., and was a member of the New College String Quartet in 1969.

He moved on to Washington State University in Pullman, Wash., in 1972 as an associate professor of music and a member of the WSU Chamber Music Quartet and the Muhlfield Trio. There Christopher met and married his second wife, Linda Jovanovich, and went on to teach at WSU for the next 30 years. His favorite teaching position of all was in Hudson, Ohio, at the ENCORE School for Strings, the summer program of the Cleveland Institute of Music held on the campus of the Western Reserve Academy, where he touched the lives and music of dozens of young musicians every summer from 1985 to 2006.

Upon his retirement from academia, he returned to New York City after reuniting with his college sweetheart, Sara Rudner. He spent the last 10 years happily living in her company in Manhattan, where they were joined as husband and wife in August 2013.

Christopher is survived by Ms. Rudner; his two daughters Cassell von Baeyer of Reno, Nev., and Jaime Jovanovich-Walker and her husband, Ed Walker, of Moscow, Idaho; and Sara's son Eli Marschner of San Francisco, Calif. He is also survived by his stepbrothers Michael Hirshman of Cambridge, Mass., and Tobias Hirshman and his wife, Ellen Hobbs Hirshman, of Cleveland, Ohio. Cristopher was preceded in death by his parents, stepmother, Ruth Hirshman-von Baeyer, sister Barbara and brothers Thomas and Matthew von Baeyer.

In lieu of flowers, Christopher has asked that donations be made to the Kinhaven Music School in Weston