Another fine member of the "greatest generation" that many of us knew is gone. Many years ago, your family doctor may have been Dr. Baker, who after WWII returned to Mt. Morris and was originally in practice with Dr. Murray Dumont (who delivered me and probably others in our class of 57). From the Columbia Daily Tribune obituary:
"Albert Sherwood Baker, M.D., 92, of Mount Morris, Ill., formerly of Columbia, died Friday, May 8, 2009. Memorial services and visitation were Wednesday, May 13, at Disciples United Methodist Church in Mount Morris. The cremated remains will be buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery rural Mount Morris, located on a corner of the Baker family farm.
Dr. Baker was born Dec. 1, 1916. He attended primary and secondary school in Mount Morris, graduated with an AB degree from Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, in 1939 and the University of Illinois School of Medicine in Chicago in 1942. He completed a 12-month rotation internship at Cook County Hospital in Chicago before serving as a captain in the U.S. Army Air Forces at Jefferson Barracks and Scott Field, Ill., from 1943 to 1946.
After World War II, Dr. Baker returned to his home town of Mount Morris to work as a general practitioner from 1946 to 1963. During this time, he was a member of the medical staff at Rockford Memorial Hospital. In 1963, he joined the faculty at the University of Missouri, where he helped develop their rural preceptorship program for medical students and served as chief, Section of Medical Practice.
In 1967, he traveled to Thailand to study the public health training needs of Peace Corps volunteers. That same year, he spent three months helping to train Peace Corps volunteers in Hilo, Hawaii. He received a Master of Science in public health degree from MU in 1968.
Dr. Baker initiated the campaign to establish a family medicine residency in Columbia in 1969, shortly after the American Board of Family Practice was created, and served as MU’s first family medicine residency director from 1970 to 1974. From 1972 to 1975, he served as chairman of the Department of Community Health and Medical Practice at MU. Dr. Baker was a charter member of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and one of the early Residency Assistance Program consultants. He retired from MU in 1982 and was named professor emeritus.
Dr. Baker is considered by many to be “the father of family medicine” at MU. He was known and admired for his common-sense approach to primary care, his sage advice and his incredible breadth and depth of knowledge that extended well beyond medicine. He claimed this was the benefit of having a photographic memory that served him exceedingly well until the end of his long life.
One on his great joys was publishing a book titled “Dear Gang,” in which he recounted the story of 12 of his AKK medical school fraternity brothers who corresponded with one another by letters during World War II. It chronicles their experience of military medicine in the 1940s, whether stateside, in the Pacific or European theatres, as well as the importance of deep and lasting friendship.
Dr. Baker served as a troop leader for the Boy Scouts of America in Mount Morris and was honored to receive the Silver Beaver award for meritorious service. He was a member of Kiwanis and Community United Methodist Church in Columbia from 1963 to 2004. Because of failing health, he moved to Pinecrest Community in Mount Morris in 2004 and joined Disciples United Methodist Church. There, he was affectionately known as “Doc.”
Survivors include a brother, Harlan (Marion); daughters Edith Baker Lauerman (Bruce), Martha Baker Thomas (Mike) and Nancy Baker (Dan); grandchildren Randy Fawcett (Stephanie), Grant Fawcett (Marne), Sara Crow, and Karl and Anna Olson; and great-grandchildren Sadie Fawcett, Driscoll Fawcett, Hattie Fawcett, and Braxton Lauerman. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife of 58 years, Myrtle Miriam Schafmayer Baker; brother Edward Francis Baker; father Harry Hammer Baker; and mother Bertha Alberta Tholen Baker.
HT Murray Trout
Memories, photos, reunions, jokes, poems and good times of the Mt. Morris, Illinois, class of 1957.
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Newsletter of University of Missouri-Columbia Family Community Medicine, Spring 2004, had a note about Dr. Baker’s book: “SHERWOOD BAKER, MD and 11 of his classmates made a solemn oath to keep in touch. Beginning in 1943, the twelve friends conducted a 60-year letter writing campaign. All of their letters have been preserved by Dr. Baker. “Our letters chronicled the changing face of American medicine and the special friendship of twelve friends,” he says. Dr. Baker has just published a book, Dear Gang, that includes copies of the letters written through 1950.”
Might be a nice book for MM Public Library if it doesn't already have a copy.
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