Theodore Hieronymus Bast

A doctor and professor of anatomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Theodore Hieronymus Bast was a specialist of the ear and temporal bone. The utriculo-endolymphatic valve, a fluid pathway in the inner ear, was first described by him in 1928, and is sometimes known as "Bast's valve" in his honor.

Another interest of his was genealogy. In 1950, in honor of the centennial anniversary of his grandfather Jacob Bast's purchase of a homestead in Rockfield, Wisconsin in 1848, he and his first cousin Sila Lydia Bast published The Jacob Bast Farm (Centennial Account): 1848-1949, and Genealogies of the Bast and Related Families, a comprehensive genealogy of the Bast family. Sila later published a second edition of this book, The Bast Genealogy and Related Families, in 1971, which lists over 2,000 individuals in its index and mentioning thousands more. Benjamin Bast Schultz, her second cousin four times removed, is currently working on making all of their indispensable genealogical research available on this website.