FRANCIS BAKER

BAKER--Francis E. Francis Ellsworth Baker, one of Connecticut's leading corporate citizens, passed away on January 31, 2017 at 87 years of age. Mr. Baker was CEO and then Chairman of Andersen Group from 1959 until 2007. Initially a small manufacturer of missile guidance systems, Mr. Baker grew the business, took it public and created a holding company. Significant investments included CDI Medical Systems, Television Microtime, Biosound, and JM Ney. In 1972, Connecticut Governor Thomas Meskill named Mr. Baker as Chairman of a CT Finance Commission to study and report on the CT tax revenues. In 1999 as Glasnost opened Russia, Mr. Baker acquired ComCor-TV and focused on connecting over one million homes in Moscow to the Internet. Born in New York City, Mr. Baker graduated com laude from Harvard College in 1951 where he was a member of the Pheonix Club and an editor of the Harvard Lampoon. He served as a Lieutenant in the US Navy and then graduated from Harvard Business School in 1955. Open to adventure, in 1954 he drove from Boston to Rio de Janeiro in an MG convertible publishing newspaper reports of the trip. In 1992 he lived with his wife Karen for eight years on a Swan 48 and sailed over 20,000 miles in the Caribbean and across the Atlantic to Europe. He was an active member of the New York Yacht Club and a member of the Society of Colonial Wars. For eight years he was also President of the Baytree Condominium Association in Vero Beach, FL. He is survived by his wife, Karen Baker; his six children, 11 grandchildren and his former wife Patricia Barry Baker. Services will be held at St. Augustine Episcopal Church in Vero Beach, FL, on February 11 at 11am with a reception following at the Baytree Clubhouse. A second memorial will be held in Farmington, CT, later in the Spring. In lieu of flowers, the family asks donations be made to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.