Deceased August 11, 1983
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25th Reunion Book Entry
In Memory
Al Baker died Aug. 11, 1983, in Buffalo, N.Y., of a brain tumor with which he had contended with characteristic dignity, hope and determination since the previous February. Few outside Al’s family knew of his illness. For those who did know, Al’s confidence inspired disbelief that he could lose to this disease.
Al grew up in Lackawanna, N.Y., a steel mill town south of Buffalo. His father worked in the mills. His mother worked as well, especially during mill layoffs which accompanied the decline in the steel industry. Al had one younger sister, but his mother’s family in the area was large. Al was proud of his father’s Welsh and his mother’s Italian heritage. He was the first in either family to attend college. Later, he delighted in showing Amherst friends the steel mills and surroundings of Lackawanna and Buffalo.
Al lettered in basketball and track at Lackawanna High School, was captain of its football team, an All-Western New York quarterback, active in student affairs and an honor roll student. A balance of competitiveness, fairness and talent brought Al to the attention of a friend of Amherst’s Coach Ostendarp. Through their urging, Al became interested in Amherst. The College awarded Al the scholarship necessary to support his attendance. Al always appreciated that award; with it began his fierce loyalty to Amherst.
At Amherst Al continued briefly with track. His football career took off when he starred against Trinity his sophomore year as a replacement fullback. Amherst football gave Al great satisfaction. John Bologna ’68, a teammate, recalls, “The refrains of ‘mental toughness’ and ‘attention to detail’ seemed to accompany the experience of athletics at Amherst. Al admired these qualities when he observed them in others and exhibited them as well, perhaps better, than any of us.”
Al joined DU fraternity, lived in the social dorms three years and made friends across the campus.
Al spent the summer after graduation in the Pacific Northwest. He then returned to Lackawanna to be a caseworker in a county social services agency and a high school teacher and assistant football coach. For the academic years 1970-73, Al attended Syracuse University College of Law. After law school, Al moved briefly to Seattle. He soon returned to Buffalo, passed the New York bar and joined the firm of Hodgson, Russ, Andrews, Woods & Goodyear. In 1980 Al joined another Buffalo firm, Cohen Swados Wright Hanifin Bradford & Brett. There he specialized in complex commercial trial litigation. Al found some of the same satisfaction in trial work that he had in competitive sports: It absorbed some of his intense energy, rewarded his thoroughness and persistence, provided concrete objectives and produced tangible results. Al was soon made partner in his second firm and had major trials in Kansas City, Denver and Atlanta.
At the time of Al’s death, he was treasurer of the Amherst College Alumni Association of Western New York, a young lawyer’s organization, the Buffalo Athletic Club and the New York and Erie County bar associations. He had recruited students for Amherst from the community he had earlier left and to which he has successfully returned.
For many of us, Al’s life was a lesson in the meaning and joy of friendship. He was as loyal to his friends as he was to his college and family, always willing to talk, the frequent provider of insight through his constructive criticism. He stayed with us. Many times after Amherst, Al traveled several hundreds of miles, often driving one of a series of beloved Sciroccos, for a wedding, a gathering, to ski or just to visit. To those he knew faced problems, Al called to inquire and encourage action. To his friends, Al was steady, decisive in most matters, confident in most respects—“A rock,” one friends said, and he was. He was also, at times, restless and unsettled, a complex person who defied his friends’ understanding. Al suffered privately his share of major disappointments. He seemed to accept unexplained adversities and fought them with courage, strength and resilience from within. What he would not contain was his exuberance when things went well. An exuberant Al was a release of infectious energy, a famous bulldog grin that made the rest of us want to cheer and shout.
Al left as immediate family his sister, Rosemary Raab; her husband, William; and their three children, Kenneth, Jason and Kelly. With them, we sadly miss Al. His memory, and our great admiration, abide with us.
Malcolm Young ’68
