John H. (Jack) Baker was born December 30, 1931 in Jersey Shore, PA to Mildred Hauser Baker and Eldon E. Baker and died in Jacksonville, FL on January 7, 2025. Jack was raised in rural North Central PA, near the village of Linden. He began his education in a one room schoolhouse, East Linden School, and graduated from Williamsport High School in 1948. He mentioned often that a “rite of passage” in his circle of friends as a teenager was success in Scouting; he achieved Eagle Scout in 1947. In 1952 Jack graduated BS from Mt. St. Mary’s College, and MD from Georgetown University in 1956. Following internship at Mercy Hospital, Buffalo. Doctor Baker was commissioned in the Navy Medical Corps and subsequently graduated from the medical programs in Submarine and Diving Medicine. He was one of the first dozen medical officers chosen by Admiral Hyman Rickover for the Navy Nuclear Power Program which led to graduate study in radiation biology/occupational medicine at the University of Rochester where he graduated MS in 1959. After qualification at the Nuclear Prototype Site, West Milton, NY he reported to the commissioning crew of USS PATRICK HENRY (SSBN 599) in December 1959. He made three deterrent patrols in PATRICK HENRY and qualified in submarines in 1961. Graduate medical training in internal medicine at Naval Hospital San Diego was followed by a tour as staff internist at Naval Hospital St. Albans. He returned to the submarine force as Staff Medical Officer, Submarine Squadron Fourteen, Holy Loch, Scotland. Later, duty ashore included three billets at Submarine Medical Center, Groton, CT, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, and Naval Hospital, Philadelphia. He retired as Commanding Officer, Naval Submarine Medical Center. Doctor Baker was very grateful for, and devoted to, the many great shipmates ashore and afloat with whom he served. His civilian activities included occupational medicine positions at Lukens Steel Company, St. Joseph Hospital Lancaster, PA, Johns Hopkins University, University of Florida, and Monsanto Company. He was certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
In 1996, after four and half years of study and discernment and under the spiritual direction of the Vincentian scholar, the late Fr. Art Trapp, CM, Doctor Baker was ordained a Deacon for the Archdiocese of St. Louis where he served the people of St. Monica Parish, Creve Coeur, with three other deacons under the guidance of their great pastor, the late Msgr. Nick Schneider. At the time of his death Doctor Baker was incardinated in the Diocese of St. Augustine, where he had served the people of St. Michael Parish, Fernandina Beach (Frs. Mark Waters and Bob Napier) and Most Holy Redeemer Parish, Jacksonville (Frs. Tom Willis, Tim Lozier, and Adam Izbicki; Deacons Milton Vega, Peter Dang, and Mark Sciullo). He assisted in the formation of the men in the first three classes of deacons in the diocese.
Following three years of graduate study, some in residence, he received a Professional Certificate in Pastoral Ministry from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota in 2006.
Irrespective of the other rewarding and exciting activities of a long life, his happiest achievement was the marriage of 68 years with Margaret Anne Steele, his beloved Peg, along with the joys of children Robert, John II, Therese, Elizabeth, Geoffrey, Margaret, Rebecca, and Christopher, nineteen grandchildren (including Anne, raised from two years by Peg and Jack), and ten great grandchildren. In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by his wife, four children, Alice (stillborn), William (stillborn), Margaret (22 months), and Rebecca (47 years). Mass of Christian Burial will be at Most Holy Redeemer Church, 8523 Normandy Blvd., Jacksonville, FL 32221 at 10:30am January 17, 2025. Vigil services will be held Thursday, January 16, 2025 from 6:00pm – 8:00pm at Most Holy Redeemer Church, with committal at the convenience of the family in the Bishop Brute Section of the cemetery at Mt. St. Mary’s, Emmitsburg. Peg and Jack selected plain wooden caskets from the Trappist Monks of Melleray Abbey, Peosta, Iowa. Donations in Jack’s honor may be made to: Most Holy Redeemer, Jacksonville; Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary; or Immaculate Conception/St. Luke Parish, Williamsport. Immaculate Conception was founded in the 1830’s by Bavarian Catholic families of Jack’s mother (Bubb, Hauser, Nittinger, Steinbacher, Zuber).