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Baker -- Donald A. Baker, born in Logan, Iowa on Dec. 11, 1912, the third son in a family of four boys and one girl. Their father was a railroader, and throughout their lives the Bakers never lost their love of watching trains and being around railroading. Only a few weeks ago Don was in the cab of one of the locomotives of the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad's locomotives in the rail yards at Chama, showing the controls to his eight year old granddaughter, Mary. When Don was small his family moved to Missouri Valley, Iowa and then Omaha, Nebraska. Money and sometimes even food was scarce, and life was often hard, but the family was close, and Don always remembered his youth fondly. He once made a baseball by winding string into a ball and sewing a cloth cover over it, and played many a sandlot game with it. Don became so good at semi-pro baseball and softball in Omaha during the Great Depression, playing after work and on weekends, that a big league talent scout once offered him a tryout opportunity. His dreams of playing major league ball were thwarted, however, when his father died unexpectedly and he assumed the responsibility of providing for his mother and younger siblings at home. Drafted into the Army for WWII in 1942, Don attended OCS and became an officer at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, then volunteered for the newly formed artillery aviation school there. These artillery pilots underwent an intensive and difficult flight training program, learning to fly slow, unarmed Piper Cubs over the enemy to become the aerial eyes of the artillery in all theaters of the War. Specially skilled pilots were chosen to learn the secret"Brodie System" method of landings and takeoffs from cables suspended along the sides of LST landing craft. Hooks were welded to the top of the wings, and the airplanes both took off and landed while dangling from loops in the cable, performing much as helicopters do today. Because of his flying skills, Don was chosen to be one of these special pilots, and was taught the Brodie System in Hawaii before shipping out to fly against the Japanese in the Philippines, where he was preparing for the invasion of the Japanese mainland when the Atomic Bombs ended the war. Discharged from the Army at the rank of Captain, Don resumed civilian life in Omaha as a clerk for the Orchards and Wilhelm furniture store, played softball with two city teams, and met and married Mary Ann Sheets, whom he always described as the prettiest girl in Omaha. Don was recalled into the Army with the Korean War, and promoted to Major. He toured the U.S. flying Army aircraft with a special Army Demonstration Team, which displayed Army aircraft and tactics to the general public at numerous city airfields, then served in Korea, and he and Mary Ann soon had the first of their four sons. Don remained in the Army after Korea, serving again in Hawaii, then at Ft. Bliss, Texas, where he also became a helicopter pilot, then for four years as an aviation advisor to the Turkish government in Ankara, Turkey, and thence to Ft. Rucker, Ala., where he retired at the rank of Lt. Col. in 1968 with many medals of commendation and testimonies of appreciation. While serving in the Army Don was always involved in his sons' school programs, Little League baseball and football, and charitable activities. When he was asked by the Army to organize a blood drive for the Red Cross, his program broke all records for the amount of blood donated. After retirement from the Army Don brought his family to Albuquerque in 1968, and eventually bought a house near Old Town where he lived the rest of his life. For ten years, from 1969-79, Don worked as a civilian for the Navy at the Naval Weapons Evaluation Facility (NWEF), scheduling flight tests at White Sands, bringing to that job his many years of aviation experience, and making many more friends. All his sons attended the University of New Mexico. When his sons and daughter-in-law, Elise built two antique open-cockpit aircraft in 1977 and 1981, Don dusted off his pilot's license and test flew them, which made the front pages of the Albuquerque Journal, and then taught family members how to fly them (his co-workers at NWEF claimed that he could probably also fly the garages they were built in.) At home Don helped his sons work on airplanes, motorcycles, antique autos, and after his sons married he himself built furniture for their homes, and built dollhouses and other toys for his grandchildren as they came along. He always remained a great sports fan. This past summer, at age 87, Don was out on the Little League diamonds teaching rookie Little League girls how to throw and bat baseballs. Over the last few years he wrote 500 pages of memoirs and family history, illustrated with many family photos, as a gift to his relatives and grandchildren, a book that will be increasingly cherished by them as the years pass. Unfailingly cheerful throughout his life (his family never heard him say a swear word), always helpful to family, friend, or stranger, Don had been married to Mary Ann 53 years at the time of his death on Monday from complications arising from colon surgery. He is survived by his wife, Mary Ann and three of his four sons and their wives and children: (from oldest to youngest) Tom and his wife, Lee (Elise), with their daughter, Mary, John with his daughters, Heather Marie and Ivy Anne, and Donald and his wife, JoBeth and their son, Donnie. He was preceded in death by his son, Bob in 1978. A rosary will be recited on Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m. at Fitzgerald and Son Funeral Directors at 3113 Carlisle Blvd. NE, and a Funeral Mass will be said at the Immaculate Conception Church at 619 Copper Ave. NW on Friday at 10:30 a.m. Interment will follow at Mt. Calvary Cemetery at 1900 Edith Blvd. NE.
        Published on: Wed December 19, 2001