Albert Baker, 66, conservationist, engineer

Albert M. Baker Jr. of Ridgefield, an engineer who helped pioneer the use of mobile MRI units and a conservationist who promoted the appreciation of open spaces, died Sunday, June 3, at Danbury Hospital. He was 66 years old.
In his nearly 40 years in Ridgefield, Mr. Baker had been active in working for both conservation and education. Although senior citizens are often linked with anti-school-spending forces, Mr. Baker was a gray-haired Ridgefielder who invariably backed education, often with letters to the newspaper. “He always supported the schools,” said Patricia Boyd Baker, his wife of 44 years.
Thirty years ago, he and four other Republicans tried to unseat more conservative members of the Republican Town Committee in an effort to refashion the committee into a more pro-education organization. Called “the five young Turks” by a Press writer, they were unsuccessful in winning seats, but their campaign helped move the GOP more toward pro-school stances in the 1970s.
Mr. Baker was born in Stamford on Sept. 14, 1934, the son of the late Albert M. Baker and Helen Gombos Baker. He attended Stamford schools and graduated from Stamford High School in 1952. He served in the United States Army in Germany at the end of the Korean conflict.
After his discharge, he received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Fairfield University and went to work for Philips Medical Systems, a division of North American Philips. He spent 25 years as a senior project-engineering manager. In his last 10 years he focused on designing and perfecting a mobile Magnetic Resonance Imaging System, scanners installed in tractor trailers that could be transported among many smaller hospitals unable to afford a permanent installation. He was involved in many aspects of the design, from the functioning of the equipment itself to the cushioning and electronic shielding of the equipment within the trailer.
The family moved to Ridgefield in 1962. Mr. Baker served as president of Ridgebury PTA and later the Joint Council of PTA’s. He was on the Committee for Adult Education and served as an alternate for the Zoning Board of Appeals. He was also involved in the voting process, serving as moderator at elections and referendums.
Mr. Baker’s love of the outdoors began when he was a child living in a rural part of Stamford. “He grew up near the woods and he always enjoyed the woods,” Pat Baker said. Many family vacations were spent camping in national and state forests. Sometimes to the chagrin of his then teenage daughters, he would often spend evenings around the campfire, playing tapes of wild bird songs.
An amateur ornithologist, he did field surveys for the Connecticut Audubon Society, was a member of the Connecticut Ornithological Association, and was treasurer of the Saugatuck Valley Audubon Society. While leading the Ridgebury PTA in the 1970s, he and his wife were leaders in a group raising money to buy Peterson Gorge, the open space next to the school that has been used as an outdoor nature classroom for more than 25 years.
Mr. Baker was a member of the Ridgefield Conservation Commission, a town agency that acquires and oversees open spaces. For the past two years, he had been one of the most active and vocal members of the Ridgefield Open Space Association (ROSA), serving on its board. “He did an awful lot of research for ROSA,” Mrs. Baker said.
He also often wrote letters to the editors in support of the town’s acquiring the Bennett’s Pond land. In his most recent letters this spring, he light-heartedly styled himself as “Joe Sixpack,” a reference to a crack made by a Board of Finance member who was critical of ROSA’s efforts.
Mr. Baker enjoyed traveling and had been to the jungles of the upper Amazon River, to Mexico during a major earthquake there, and several times to Europe. “One of his most enjoyable moments was singing Irish songs around a peat fire with two of my Irish cousins in Cork,” Mrs. Baker said. “They were impressed that he knew the words, too.”
“He was just a nice guy,” Pat Baker said. “I am going to miss him very much.”
Besides his wife, Mr. Baker is survived by a son, Stephen, of Leavenworth, Wash.; three daughters, Siobhan Baker Jenkins and Sheila Baker of Marshfield, Mass., and Amanda Baker of Odenton, Md.; three grandchildren, Felix and Audrey Baker of Leavenworth, and Ciara Jenkins of Marshfield; and a sister, Helen Baker Pasenelli of Milford.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated this morning, Thursday, June 7, at 10:30 in St. Mary’s Church. Burial will follow in St. Mary’s Cemetery.
Instead of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to RO.S.A., P.O. Box 492, Ridgefield, or the Ridgefield Conservation Commission, Open Space Fund, 400 Main Street, Ridgefield.
The Kane Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.