Ronald James Baker

Mount Allison, Simon Fraser, Prince Edward Island.

Ron Baker was a Cockney, born in 1924 above a greengrocer's

shop in Lambeth, London. A scholarship boy, he nevertheless left school

when he was 15 partly to start as a trainee civil engineer and partly to

play in and run an "incredibly bad"(his words) dance band. Musicians

were disappearing into the forces, and there was an incredible demand for

dances ..

He was a dispatch rider in the London Blitz, occasionally guiding

fire engines and rescue crews to bomb sites. He was in Charing Cross

Station when it was bombed ..

He trained and was commissioned in Manitoba as a navigator in

the RAF, but he never flew in danger .. He served with the RCAF in

England and Germany and emigrated to Canada in 194 7.

Attending UBC, originally in science and engineering, he graduated

with a first class honours degree in English, followed with an M.A. His

thesis was said to be the shortest ever accepted and got the highest mark ..

He then studied linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies,

University of London. He did not complete a Phd thesis.

Returning to UBC as a faculty member, he was a major contributor

to the Macdonald Report that led to Simon Fraser University and the

community college system n B.C. As a result, he was the first faculty

appointment and the Academic Planner (and "general dogsbody, "he said)

and Head of English at Simon Fraser. At the opening ceremonies, both

the Chancellor and the President, citing only the one name, noted his

contribution to the beginnings of Simon Fraser.Later he was given an

honorary doctorate and was one of 40 people honoured for their

contributions to SFU at its fortieth anniversary celebration.

He was the first president of the University of Prince Edward

Island, a controversial, government forced, merger of a Roman Catholic

university and a public (perceived as Protestant) university. He was

credited with the successful integration in a public declaration by the

Lieutenant Governor of PEL

Nationally, Baker served on the Canada Council, the Board of the

Assoc. ofUniversities and Colleges of Canada, the CRTC, and the

selection committees for the Molson Prize and the Killam Prize.For

thirteen years, he chaired the selection committee of the Security and

Defence Forum of the Department ofNational Defence. Defence named a

doctoral fellowship after him.

He was Director of The Institute for Departmental Leadership,

funded by the Kellogg Foundation, workshops for heads and chairs of

university departments. It was attended by faculty from all but two

universities in Canada.

Baker received many honours, being most proud to be an Officer

of Order of Canada and of the school bell given him by graduate students

-marked TEACHER. An exciting and innovative teacher, he led a

number of students into linguistics. His senior course at UBC, simply

described as An Introduction to the grammar, phonology, and lexicon of

the English Language, reputedly difficult, went from 7 students to 125 in

. five years,. Finally, he was the David MacDonald Stewart Professor of

Canadian Studies at UPEI. He had been president of the Association of

Canadian University and College Teachers of English and the Canadian

Society for the Study of Higher Education., and was honoured by both

On retirement, Baker served with the Canadian Executive Service

Organisation as a volunteer, advising a new university in Bolivia and

many First Nations' groups in Canada. He also delighted, an unpaid

volunteer, in swearing in nearly 5000 new citizens, telling them that he

was an immigrant too and how great Canada was.

More than a list of honours, Ron was a good teacher, mentor, and

friend. He loved to sing and dance with his second wife, Fran. He played

the piano at parties to encourage faculty to get to know one another. He

mesmerized three generations of children with his stories.

A somewhat flamboyant character who loved dancing, singing, and

playing the piano, he was on good terms with his ftrst wife,Jo, and loved

their ftve children, Ann, Lyndy, Ian, Sarah (d.2014), and Kate, and he

was passionately devoted to his second wife of35 years, Frances Frazer,

(d.2010) and loved their son, Ted.

He had many publications on a variety of subjects and was

especially fond of his paper showing that odd names died out from

natural selection. A woman named Shufflebottom would marry anyone to

get rid of the name, and no-one would marry a man called Shuffle bottom.

It was published in the Dalhousie Review,.reprinted by the Science

Council, and put on the internet by biologists. When it was noted in

Punch, his cockney father was delighted that he had ftnally published in a

good journal.

Condolences and memories to [email protected]. No funeral.

Donations in memory may be sent to any university library, especially to

the University of PEl Library.