Warren J. Baker

I will never forget his speech when he presented to the incoming freshman engineering class in 1980. He said to us, look to your right and look to your left, those people will not be here when you graduate. Cal Poly had a 67% dropout rate in the engineering program. I came from a disadvantaged background, I took every math and science class available at my high school, but still did not have a strong base, compared to the other students from more affluent areas. It really woke me up, to tel myself I cannot play games here at Cal Poly. I had to work harder, but in the end, I finished ahead in my class. Thank you President Baker for telling us straight up, and not playing games with us.

So sorry to learn of Pres Baker´s passing. I enjoyed seeing him out with his family on weekends at the dairy. He was instrumental in helping establish the Dairy Products Technology Center snd always willing to meet eith our Advisory councils. We were happy to introduce pres bakers favorite flavor banana walnut into the cal poly ice cream line one year and also proudly have him introduce my MSStudent, po sai (marie yueng) ( now a full professor of microbiology in csl poly biol dcience) at commencement one year as outstanding graduate student.

I watched a beautiful celebration of his life "on line" this afternoon. Great memories.

Ps. At our industry adv meetings he regularly mentioned how he would deliver milk in his " earlier days"

What a great guy. Pulled the plug on Cal Poly Fire that had been around since 1906. Great job Warren.

Well done Warren...

I didn't know Emeritus Pres. Warren Baker as long as my philosophy colleagues did below, but I know that he was a true friend to philosophy and the liberal arts on a polytechnic campus that had other priorities (at the time) and could have easily left us at the margins.

Pres. Baker made an impact on my life and countless others who might not even be aware of it. For one thing, he was very forward-thinking, such as anticipating the need to invest in technology ethics-which led to other hires and much groundbreaking (and ongoing) work, which in turn launched a thousand research agendas worldwide.

After he retired, I still saw Pres. Baker every now and then at the Performing Arts Center on campus. He always had the biggest smile and was everyone's friend, knowing so many of us by name. Again, he was a great champion of the arts but also of Cal Poly, our community, and far beyond.

You will be greatly missed, Pres. Baker, but how lucky we all are to have known you and to have you in the world. Godspeed.

I taught at Poly for 40 years, and I really, really admire the increased professionalism in faculty and administrators that I have seen evolve under Baker's influence. The Cal Poly name commands more respect now than in earlier times.

My sincere condolences to Warren Baker's wife, children, and grand children. I have nothing but good memories of Warren during my years as a professor of philosophy at Cal Poly. He was a kind and thoughtful man.

We first met in 1979 when we both came to Cal Poly; he as president and I as a visiting professor. We met while watching our young sons play soccer at a local field. I congratulated him for his appointment and he did the same for mine. We also found out that morning that we were both born in 1938. And we both had either taught or administered at several universities before coming to CP.

The second time we met was the next year when my department and college dean recommended me for a permanent position and tenure, even though I had only been at CP for one year. However, someone in the administration had told Warren that my promotion was too early because it would break precedent. He apparently agreed, but his secretary had sent me the wrong boilerplate letter. (She/he had picked the "yes" instead of the "no" letter.) In the meantime, I had called George Mason University in Virginia and told them that I was resigning from my position there. When I was told that the letter in my hand should have been a refusal, I went directly to Warren's office and told him my story. He agreed that it was their fault and said that the only way to repair the damage was to make me a tenured professor. In other words, he saw the injustice and immediately acted upon it.

Our third meeting was some years later when I was chair of the philosophy department. I had worked very hard trying to convince various committees and administration personnel that a philosophy major would be a good move for Cal Poly. We had a successful minor and many of the students who took the minor wanted to get a B.A. degree in the same field. I went again to Warren's office and made a pitch for a major. He listened while I talked about the benefits for the campus, asked several questions and at the end he said he would give his full support when we presented our proposal to the Academic Senate. Our good fortune was that Warren had been an undergrad at Notre Dame and had enjoyed the philosophy courses that he had attended. He saw no good reason why our students would not benefit. Three months later a major in philosophy was approved.

The last time I saw Warren was at the post office parking lot in San Luis Obispo. We stood next to our cars and talked about the future of Cal Poly for almost one hour. We left after agreeing that we should get together again over coffee or lunch. I regret that this never happened.

I know it is a cliché to say this, but Dr. Warren Baker will be greatly missed by those who had the opportunity to meet and work with him as he strived and succeeded to make California Polytechnic State University rank as the best public undergraduate university in California.