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ImageLansing suffered a major loss Monday when Robert C. (Bob) Baker passed away in his home.  Baker was best known for transforming the poultry industry by finding innovative ways to encourage people to eat chicken.  But he will be equally missed for a lifetime of sleeves-up efforts to make Lansing a better place to live.

Baker was a long-time member of Lansing United Methodist Church.  He was a founding member of the Lansing Lions Club.  When that club donated the Community Center to the Town, he was active in creating the Lansing Community Council which currently helps fund such programs as the Recreation Department and Lansing Youth Services.  Community council members including Baker did a lot of carpentry and other work to improve the building, including window replacement, and laying floors. 

He was a member of the  Ithaca Rotary and the North Lansing Auxiliary as well as a founder of the Lansing Housing Authority, which is responsible for the Woodsedge retirement facility near the town ball fields and other programs for Lansing's elderly citizens.

Bob and his wife Jacoba (Jackie) were married for 62 years.  They have seven children, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.  The family is known for being warm, close-knit and a positive influence in the town, supportive of each other and involved in countless initiatives that help others.  The family works together on enterprises including Baker's Acres and Baker's Chicken Coop, the restaurant at the New York State Fair that specializes in chicken cooked with the famous Cornell Sauce that he developed in the 1940s.  

Image After graduating from Cornell Baker joined the Army.  Son Dale recalls, "He was in the Army at the end of World War II.  They graduated early.  He went into basic training for five or six months and the farm deferrment kicked in.  The war was over.  He went back to work on the farm for a while."  He began teaching at Cornell in 1949 where he had a long, successful career researching and teaching in the Department of Poultry Science.  The New York Times referred to him as a "Chicken Edison."

Youngest daughter Johanna (Jo) recalls, "He was a joker.  He had a great sense of humor."  She also says he loved bargains.  "My father had a love for Woolworths, Big Lots, Dollar Stores.  My car would automatically turn into Woolworth's parking lot.  People said I took after my Dad because I'd automatically go to Big Lots looking for a bargain."

"One of my finest memories of him," says Jo, "is when I went skiing in the Special Olympics.  He was at the bottom of the hill with my Mom.  It was so nice.  They radioed up the hill to tell me my parents were here, so they got to see me compete.  Then I went over to get on the lift and there was my Dad standing there."

Dale also remembers, "He loved fishing.  Our family vacation every year was exactly the same.  It was one week in Canada. We did this for 25 or 30 years.  He used to get up at five in the morning and take anybody who wanted to go with him."

"We loved it," says Jackie. " We borrowed campers, we borrowed the Bensen's motor home.  It was good.  Yes, it was good."

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Baker's Chicken Coop is a mainstay at the New York State fair, featuring Bob Baker's famous Cornell Sauce.  So far three generations of Bakers have worked there.  Baker went to every county in New York State to promote barbecued chicken.

Baker was recognized world-wide as an authority on chicken who developed more than 50 innovations including chicken nuggets in the 1950s, at least 10 years before McDonald's made them popular.  He invented ground chicken, chicken salami, chicken hash, chicken pastrami and even chicken hot dogs.  

Calling hours will be Friday from 7-9pm and Saturday from 2-4pm at the Lansing United Methodist Church on Brickyard Road in Lansing.  A memorial barbecue will be held Saturday from 4-6pm at the church, followed by a service in the Lansing Middle School Auditorium.

Click Here to view the obituary.

Jackie Baker Remembers

Yesterday afternoon our reporter Karen Veaner sat down with Jackie Baker and asked her to share the story of she and Bob.  Here is a transcript of what she said:

His Ag teacher took him down to show him Cornell, and what a wonderful place it was.  His mother wanted the best for her boys in every way.  He went off to Cornell and worked for his room and board.  He lived with a family.  His mother would send him five dollars every week.  He worked so hard that he lost every hair in his head -- he went completely bald!

I met him his Junior year.  I was at Michigan State, but because I had taught swimming and life saving in the 4H camps I decided that was my future, I wanted to be in Extension.  So I was applying to Cornell when I graduated and they knew that.  They gave you summer jobs to try out.  He and I were both placed in Saratoga Springs.

We clicked right from the beginning, but I thought once he goes home it might all be over with.  I didn't know what girl friends he had.  At the end of the summer when we were both going back to college I waited for that letter.  And it came.  And then he came down.  He brought his folks down.  I came down at Thanksgiving.

One time I met him in Buffalo.  He was in the band.  His friend's girl friend said I could come that weekend and stay with her.  So I did.  Then we had the war.  We got engaged and then he went into the service.  But they were over staffed with officers.  They were letting people go, so his folks put in a request that he have an agricultural discharge, so he wasn't in very long.  He started working for the state in chicken selection.

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 Jackie and Bob Baker

We didn't get married until a year from that fall.  We got married in the West Groton church.  I still had six months to finish up my commitment, so we got an apartment up there in Norwich and he would come weekends.  He was traveling for the State.

Then we went to his home town and I got a teaching job.  Bob was still doing selection work.  Then he got a job as a food agent down near Middletown.  And then I was pregnant.  They did not hire pregnant teachers.  My doctor was on the school board, so he worked it out for me.  So I left and went to Middletown.

We were hoping to stay.  We got this little apartment on top of a garage.  It was a beautiful area, it was lovely.

Then Penn State said they had an Extension job opening.  His mother had worked hard to get us moved up there, and she says, "Go for it, Bob.  Go for it.  Of course you've got to go for it."

So he went and got the job.  He was with three men that were all in their 60s or 70s.  And he was just a kid.  he was 26 at that time.  I was waiting at home for the baby to come.  He was putting off going to work for about two weeks, because we thought the baby would come for sure.  So the morning he heads out for Penn State the baby headed out!

They had handed him his agenda when he arrived the day before.  He was doing a radio program that day and was going on. So I didn't get to talk to him before the baby came.  Dale was born on July second.  There must have been a special weekend coming up when he could come home... and he did.

In those days you stayed in bed, you know?  Ten days.  I got up.  He was upset.  He said, "You've got to go back with me, you've just got to go back with me."  So I got up in the middle of the night and went in to Mom and Dad and said, "Bob wants me to go down with him."  And Mom says, "Well, I guess so."  So she got up and helped me pack and we headed off.

We lived in a kind of tourist home for about a week.  I had an agent that I had worked with in Cortland County who was now down there, and they invited us to come over and stay.  Housing was very short, it was very hard at that time.  We went outside of State College.  It was a lovely old farm house.  We wanted it in the worst way.  It had a fence around it.

I was talking to the four old maid sisters and Bob was out mowing the lawn.  And they did rent it to us.  They thought maybe we were pretty stable.  We were there for two years, working, and then Cornell.  He was a poultry agent there.  He made a switch when he took a poultry course.  He went on the judging team.  And Doctor Hall, bless his heart, he said, "Bob, you should go to grad school.  You definitely should go into grad school and and go into poultry."  Doctor Bruckner said, before you move back you can have a job back here, but before you do, why don't you get your Masters?  Get it over with.  'Cause you'll have to have it in the next five years anyway."

So we stayed an extra year and he got his masters.  Then we came up and lived upstairs at Mary and Clarence's house for about a year and a half.  And then we found this house and we moved over here.

He was full time Extension.  That meant going out Monday morning and often being gone several days.  By the time the children were... you know, they kept me busy.  And I said, "Get your doctor's degree.  Get it over with.  Then you can stay put."

So we went out to Purdue and he got his PhD.  We rented the house while we were gone and came back.  We always said we wanted a farm to bring the children up on.  We were strong believers in that children that were busy didn't get in trouble.  He used to leave his agenda when he'd head out for his traveling, and I would see it through... what the kids were going to do.



(Pictures courtesy of Jackie Baker)
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