DAVID BAKER

1932 - 2020

BAKER--David Remember. David Remember Baker, retired attorney at law, passed away at his Birmingham, AL residence on March 20, 2020, his 12th day in hospice. Shortly before his death, surrounded by his wife, Lois Avery Gaeta, sister-in-law Elease Mullins Smith, and other family members, he was asked how he was feeling. He responded "A-OK" with the forefinger and thumb of his left hand. He was 88 years old and quite annoyed that he had not made it to 90. David was born in Durham, NC, on January 17, 1932, the first son of Eleanor Ussher Baker and Roger Denio Baker, MD. His unusual middle name "Remember" was after his fifth generation grandfather, Captain Remember Baker of the Vermont "Green Mountain Boys". His two younger brothers, Douglas Ussher Baker (Janice Chen Barber) and Stephen Denio Baker, PhD (Paula Eisenstein) survive him, as do their children, Rachel Beal Baker (Len Parker) and Nicholson Baker (Margaret Winslow Brentano); Hannah Baker Hitzhusen (Michael Hitzhusen) and Sarah Baker Topper (David Topper). David's first wife, Myra Mullins Baker, PhD, an art historian and teacher from Birmingham, AL, passed away in 2010. David's sister-in-law and Myra's sister, Elease Smith of Birmingham, AL, also survives David, as well as several nieces and nephews on the Mullins side of the family. He married Lois Avery Gaeta in 2011. His maternal grandfather was Rev. Clarence D. Ussher, MD, a medical missionary to Van, Turkey, whose book, An American Physician in Turkey: A Narrative of Adventures in Peace and War, was a source for the Canadian film on the 1915 Armenian genocide, Ararat. His paternal grandfather, Ray Stannard Baker, was a noted muckraking journalist and official biographer for Woodrow Wilson, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. The Baker family moved to Birmingham in 1945 when Dr. Roger Denio Baker became professor and chairman of the new Department of Pathology at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. David's part time job as a newspaper carrier for the Birmingham Post earned him a $700 cash scholarship that enabled him, at age 14, to go to the University of Chicago where he earned his Bachelor of Philosophy in 1949. "I was fortunate to room with three wartime veterans who protected me from the tough older students who might harm me, and, also, taught me how to play bridge," he said. While there, he decided to become a lawyer. Harvard Law was his natural choice since his father had gone to Harvard Medical School. However, he was rejected when he applied to Harvard Law at the age of 17. Admissions told him that the Chicago undergraduate program produced "kiddies' degrees" and would not consider him until he had a "proper" baccalaureate. "Well," David reasoned, with typical Baker logic, "Birmingham-Southern College is right here and I can live at home." Having earned an A.B. degree from "the Hilltop" in 1951, he scored an exceptional 753 on the Educational Testing Service used by Harvard Law School at that time, and earned a JD from Harvard University in 1954. He next served in the U.S. Army, where he was assigned to classified communications on the base in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Myra Mullins, his fiance from Birmingham, joined him there, where they were married. Returning to Alabama, David became an associate with the law firm of Cabaniss & Johnson. But the cultural advantages of New York City caught the young couple's eye and David found a post with the New York law firm of Chadbourne, Parke, Whiteside & Wolff. In 1986, he became a partner at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. Later in his career, David maintained a Birmingham-New York City legal connection, including his being of counsel to Haskell Slaughter Young & Rediker, LLC in Birmingham and to Kayser & Redfern, LLP in New York City. David was a member of the Metropolitan Club of New York and The Harvard Club of New York City. He was president of the New York Legislative Service (1975-1998), a director of Junior Achievement of New York (1973-1999) and of Junior Achievement of Greater Birmingham (1999-2007). He was General Counsel for the Economic Club of New York for 34 years. For many years, he enjoyed the intellectual challenges of attending conferences at Lloyd's of London. A formidable bridge player and art aficionado, he spent his leisure time going to the museums and theatres, operas, and concert halls of every city he visited. He was a trustee of Birmingham-Southern College (1985-2013). In 2019 Birmingham-Southern College honored David R. Baker with an LLD, honoris causa. A new David emerged after his 2015 stroke as "Team David", comprised of family, caregivers and friends, enabled him to experience EPCOT, a great-niece's wedding in Maine, holidays in New York City, and the historical sites of D.C. This past November, "Team David" took a 16-day museum trip to London. A trip to Northern Ireland was next on his wish list. "However," he always warned, "at some point something untoward will happen and we just have to accept it when it does." That "something" was the second stroke that followed a week after he had been awoken from his sleep by a flashing fire alarm in his room at the Embassy Suites in Birmingham. He had to be evacuated backwards down four flights of stairs in his wheelchair to escape a heavily smoking fire that emanated from the restaurant at the hotel. (His residence was having new flooring installed; thus, the short hotel stay.) David would soon enter hospice at home. But before so doing, when he spotted that the form for the 2020 census had arrived in the mail, with his customary due diligence, he insisted that his name and relevant information be submitted right away! And when he was asked which charitable donations might be given in his honor, he looked up from his omnipresent book, a bit annoyed about being interrupted from his deep concentration, and responded with the balanced, decisive tone of an arbitrator, "The choice of donation is up to the individual." Once Covid-19 abates, there will be two memorial services for David Remember Baker. The first will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham. The second, a musical remembrance, will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of All Souls in New York City. Interment will be at Wildwood Cemetery in Amherst, MA.