Robert W. Baker died quietly at home on the River Road after a brief illness. His beloved wife Margaret had passed only days before, and the loss weighed heavily upon him. Both he and Margaret had been able to stay in their own home until their final days, thanks to the loving care of the staff of Elderpower.

Bob was born in 1921, on Long Island, NY, the third son of Dudley M. and Catharine Spencer Baker. His family later moved to Hingham, MA, where he and his brothers Dudley and Spencer grew up and went to school at Derby Academy. He later attended Hotchkiss School, and went on to Yale University where he studied engineering. With the country in the midst of WWII, he graduated in 3 years with ROTC training, and entered the Navy as a second lieutenant in 1943, where he served on a minesweeper in the Pacific.

After the war, he returned to work in Boston for State Street Bank, where he learned much of the world of finance. He did not like the corporate world and choose to follow an independent path, an interest that led to a lifelong career as an inventor and entrepreneur. While in Boston in the spring of 1947, Bob was introduced to a young nurse that was caring for his brother’s child. Three weeks after meeting Margaret Horsfield, he asked her to marry him, and a few months later they were married on Cape Cod. They moved to Damariscotta soon after, and Bob and his brother Spencer, who was still recovering from his war wounds and studying engineering at the University of Maine, combined households and started a business in Damariscotta. Spencer later moved his family to Massachusetts to work for Norton Company, but Bob and Margaret stayed on and raised a family, first on High Street in Damariscotta and later on the River Road in Newcastle in a home that Bob had built. All four of their children, Christopher, Catharine, Cynthia and Colin, were born at Miles Memorial Hospital, and did much of their learning in the local schools and in the fields and woods around their home, caring for horses, and exploring the river.

Bob kept working practically all his life as a mechanical engineer, first as proprietor of the Cape Cod Shop, which sold fireplace tools, and later as an inventor of a number of scientific instruments, including a marine sediment core sampler for the Darling Research Center, and a paperless recording barometer. Being able to work with his hands was always of high value to him, and he was a master machinist, most recently making beautifully machined parts for new violin designs for Ned Steinberger, right up until just a year ago. He also loved working outdoors and cut all his own firewood until the age of 91, which kept him in good health in his later years.

He loved working in the woods and managed 200 acres of forest, now known as the Baker Woods, to produce lumber for George Coles' toy shop, the Carpenter’s Boatshop in Bristol, and occasionally Paul Bryant's Riverview Boatyard. In the late 60's and 70's, he derived great satisfaction from his work as first selectman for Newcastle, as a deacon for Second Congregational Church, and especially as board member and then treasurer for Central Lincoln County Ambulance Service, where he served for 35 years from its inception until 2010. He was a Boy Scout troop leader when his children were young, and in addition to singing in the church choir, he loved his barbershop quartet, which performed for the Bristol Footlighters in the 1950's.

One of his proudest achievements was to help found the Damariscotta River Association and the preserve at Dodge Point in Newcastle, and he loved going there and working on roads and trails. Much of his philanthropic work over the past 30 years had focused on this type of land conservation, assisting land trusts all over the state in their projects. He played a major role in helping to secure 4500 acres of mountains and valleys adjacent to Alamoosook Lake in Orland, where he had spent his summers with his brothers as a boy; this land is now known as the Wildlands, administered by Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust. One of his most recent endeavors was to help create the new Applied Technology Center at Lincoln Academy, so that area students could learn the satisfactions of working with their hands, as he did. His only requirement in most of this work was that he be allowed to stay out of the limelight, and to make sure that proper credit went to younger people coming into positions of responsibility and leadership.

He was predeceased by his wife of 67 years, Margaret Baker; their eldest son, Christopher H. Baker; as well as his parents, brothers and their wives.

He is survived by his daughters, Catharine S. Baker of Spruce Head, and Cynthia B. Ball and her husband Lance of Wenham, MA; his son, Colin W, Baker and his wife Elaine Cinciva of Freeport and Castine; his grandchildren, Caitlin S. Clark and husband Samuel of Rockport, Elizabeth Margaret Ball and Matthew Baker Ball of Wenham, MA; great-grandchildren, Natalie and Cyrus Clark of Rockport; and many nieces and nephews around the US and overseas.

His memorial service will be held, jointly with Margaret's, on Dec. 13th, at 1:30pm, at the Second Congregational Church in Newcastle. The Rev. Ken Dale will officiate. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Damariscotta River Association, PO Box 333, Damariscotta, ME 04543; the Second Congregational Church, PO Box 243, Newcastle, ME 04553; or a charity of one's choice.

Arrangements are under the direction and care of the Strong-Hancock Funeral Home, 612 Main Street, Damariscotta, ME. Condolences, and messages for the family, may be expressed by visiting: www.StrongHancock.com.

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