"[1] The parish school of St. Leo's was staffed by Franciscan Sisters[2] who instructed Baker and his fellow students in their studies and in the Catholic faith.
Baker's grandfather had suffered a stroke and was no longer able to work and his grandmother made the only income for the family, bringing in $6.00 a week as a restaurant cook.
[1] Three different US military branches had bases in Tacoma and when World War II was being fought many servicemen came into the restaurant, some of the waitresses made money on the side by engaging in prostitution using the job as a contact point for customers.
[1] With his junior year in high school Baker became a serious student as he began to consider joining the navy to become a pilot or being the first in his family to attend college.
After the two-year trial period ended, Baker was committed to join the Jesuits and on the Feast of Assumption 1949 he took the perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in the Society of Jesus and began an eleven-year program to become a priest.
[1] Aware of Baker's interest in teaching his Provincial offered him a chance to study theology at the Austrian Jesuit University of Innsbruck.
[1] Investigating such parties, Baker felt that they were leading to an "unhealthy spirit, a breakdown in the commitment to a complete and exclusive following of Christ, a haze dimming the witness to the reality of eternal life.
While a wave of dissent arose throughout Catholic universities across North America, Gonzaga's faculty remained loyal and gave a series of lectures in support of the encyclical.
While many Catholic educational institutions were seen as "secularizing" by turning over control to lay boards of directors, Baker advocated the opposite, defending the preservation of ecclesiastical affiliation and the Jesuit spirit of solidarity and service.
[1] In late November 1969 the Jesuit Provincial called Baker into his office and informed him that the president of Seattle University was being replaced and that he, then forty-years-old, was being appointed to the position.
The boycott did not take place, but on January 19, 1970, weeks before Baker took office a bomb exploded between the Liberal Arts and Garrand buildings causing costly structural damage, but no injuries or loss of life.
[3] Baker began a series of severe budget cuts, all the while receiving continuous demands for more funding from the heads of different academic programs.
[5] A few months into Baker's presidency news of the U.S. invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State shootings inspired student radicalism and riots on the campus of Seattle University.
[1] Baker found their demands and objections unreasonable and "perceived that the agitation was designed to wreak havoc on the school" so he stood firm.
Her final two candidates "were Ray Napierkowski, a 1969 honors graduate from Seattle U, or William Hodge, a Black teaching assistant from the University of Washington with a master’s degree in sociology.
The news of this decision caused outrage among much of the faculty and student body who held the university lacked commitment to affirmative action in hiring educators.
[5] Interviewed by the student newspaper The Spectator, Yourglich stated that the first priority of her job was to advance the understanding of Sociology "As far as need for a black image at S.U.
[5] The editors of The Spectator felt the decision was part of a pattern of resistance against the hiring of minority faculty members at the university and published an editorial memorandum blasting the school for racial imbalance in employment, running it alongside the interview with Yourglich.
The members of SAAME were demanding Hodge be hired, while other S.U., SCC and UW students were angry about the extension of the war into Cambodia and were protesting the presence of the ROTC on campus - calling for it to be disbanded.
Emboldened by this success the protesters marched to the Liberal Arts and Pigott building, blocked the entrances and chanted anti-War slogans.
[7] Interviewed by the local media Baker told reporters that he would remain firm and not let the protesters “break SU so we’ll have to turn it over to the state and make it a black university,” he promised he would “not tolerate anarchical activity on campus.
"[5] At the Student Conduct Review Board Emile Wilson, who had been at both the take over of Baker's office and was among those arrested days later was defended by his personal friend Fr.
)[4][8] Baker's stance against the agitated students did not receive universal support, some school benefactors and other people of influence demanded he be fired and replaced by someone with a more conciliatory approach.
Feeling his drive to implement his vision of Catholic education would be unachievable in the current climate Baker resigned the University Presidency on November 1, 1970, after having served nine months.
[5] Despite Baker's departure, trouble at Seattle University did not completely cease and on May 6, 1972, a large bomb detonated under the steps of the ROTC building, blowing out all the windows on the facing side of Loyola Hall.
The SU basketball program had been seen as "a leader in the area of racial integration and diversity"[9] which had played for the NCAA championship in 1958, and over decades of success had produced several players that went on to the NBA (including Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor).
Seattle University dropped out of the West Coast Conference and Division I and entered the small-college National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics level.
[10] Baker's stance against the radicalised students was noticed by conservative commentator William F. Buckley, Jr. who invited him as a guest on his television show "Firing Line" that filmed in New York City.
[1] Baker was assisted in his media work by being given office space in the New York residence of Cardinal Paul Yü Pin (who had been expelled from China by the Communist Party in 1949).
In 1987 Baker as President of Catholic Views Broadcast Inc started a community television station at Blue Island, Illinois airing to the Chicago area on UHF channel 54, with the call letters W54AP.