Educated at both West Point and Columbia University, Dr. Baker chaired the then English Department during the transition from York Junior College to the present four-year institution. He served as Academic Senate President from 1975 to 1977 and as a member of the Presidential Search Committee. An active scholar with significant publications on John Dryden and Laurence Sterne, Dr. Baker was honored in 1997 by the Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.