Funeral services for Dr. Bill Baker, President of North Arkansas College in Harrison, were held Thursday morning at the college where he served as president from its beginning in 1974 until his retirement in 2001.
Baker, who died Friday at the age of 84, was remembered by United State Congressman, Steve Womack from Arkansas’s Third Congressional District in the floor of the House of Representatives Monday. He called Baker an admired, respected, and visionary educator, and a genuinely terrific person. He recalled the 1993 merger of Northark and Twin Lakes Technical College in 1993 which was the first consolidation of a community college and a technical college in the state.
Baker’s impact and influence in higher education also had a significant impact locally with the establishment of Arkansas State University Mountain Home. Mountain Home Mayor Joe Dillard, who calls Baker a great man loss whose death is a great loss to all of us, recalls during the 1980’s, when he served as Baxter County Judge, the major role Baker played in the development of the college.
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Lang Zimmerman of Mountain Home, Chairman of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and a major supporter of ASU-Mountain Home, says when Mountain Home businessman Steve Luelf was serving in the Arkansas State Senate from 1985-1995, a bill was passed to allow the establishment of technical colleges.
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Zimmerman describes the important role Baker played at the new college in Mountain Home.
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A graduate of Marshall High School and an all-conference basketball player at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, Baker was on the faculty and an administrator at Arkansas Tech in Russelville for 17 years. He was also instrumental in the establishment of Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. Baker will be buried in Osborne Cemetery in St. Joe. Memorial donations may be sent to the North Arkansas College Foundation.
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