Charles Richard Furman Baker Jr. ’57

Dick devoted much of his life to saving others as a surgeon specializing in trauma and burn victims before retiring to his native South Carolina to hunt, fish, and enjoy family.

Coming to Princeton from Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va., Dick joined Tiger Inn and the wrestling team and graduated with high honors. Freeman Bunn, Dick’s four-year roommate, described him as “always good company, funny, and very, very smart.” After Johns Hopkins medical school, Dick held surgery positions with the Medical University of South Carolina, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, the Air Force, Parkland Hospital in Dallas, and Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, where he also taught at the Emory School of Medicine. 

In 1977 Dick joined the medical faculty at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, leading the expansion of the hospital’s trauma services throughout west Texas. He hung up his scrubs 24 years later to return East. Dick Schulze, a fellow South Carolinian hunter/fisherman, described Dick as “a true Southern gentleman — and a helluva good shot.” 

Dick died Jan. 25, 2021, at home on Edisto Island, S.C. He is survived by his wife, a son, a daughter, four granddaughters, and 14 great-grandchildren.