Steven K. Baker ’78

Steve died June 1, 2002, and we lost a brilliant and compassionate classmate. He was a scholar, a lover of the outdoors, and a member of the Footnotes and of Terrace Club.

Steve obtained his medical degree at UMass, and continued his studies at Chicago and Northwestern. He practiced general internal medicine, then specialized as a pulmonologist. He returned to academic medicine and had been an assistant professor at Northwestern since 1998.

Steve's brother remembers him as "the consummate physician — a successful academician, compassionate clinician, and valued teacher . . . passionate and focused in all that he did."

A former student described Steve's "passion for science and investigation" and his return to teaching because "he missed the intellectual challenge and intensity that accompany academic medicine." She continued: "We plan to carry on with the best of Steve's spirit, for as it is told in Ethics of the Fathers, 'He is like a tree planted by the water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and it does not cease to bear fruit.' "

Steve was deeply devoted to his wife, Ginny O'Keefe Baker, and three daughters, to whom we send our condolences.

The Class of 1978