Previous Message

We lost a gentleman and a good friend of mine recently. Dave was not just a friend; he was also someone who was of invaluable assistance to many 1250 modelers and producers. He helped all researchers. In addition to his large collection of 1250s, he also loved doing intricate paper models.

Arthur D. Baker III, of Williamsburg, VA, died this August 26 in Burlington, VT. He was 85.

Dave was born in Philadelphia a couple months before Pearl Harbor. His elementary and high school years were spent in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, later he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University. He conducted postgraduate studies in diplomatic history at Georgetown University and was a Distinguished Graduate of the National Defense University’s Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

I’d like to list a short summary of his career:
Dave retired as a member of the Federal Senior Executive Service in 1997 after 31 years of civilian service with the Department of the Navy. Prior to that, he saw four years of active duty in the Navy….most of that period serving on a DER in the Western Pacific. He was awarded the Department of the Navy’s Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the Department of the Navy’s Meritorious Civilian Service Award (twice), and the U.S. Naval Institute’s Author of Merit Award (twice). From 1982 to 1987, Dave was on the staff of Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, servingd as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy for Intelligence and Historical Matters.

For 25 years, Dave compiled and edited the U.S. Naval Institute’s reference book Combat Fleets of the World and served as a consultant on many other naval reference and history books. He was well known and sought after for his detailed ship illustrations as well as an encyclopedic knowledge of the ships of the world and naval history. His work is throughout the Norman Friedman The Illustrated Design History of Battleships, etc series on US Navy ships. He wrote many columns on naval affairs in the Naval Institute Proceedings from 1985 to 2004; wrote the “Historic Fleets” section in the magazine Naval History from 1993 to 2007; and was a contributing editor to Warship International. He published widely on subjects dealing with maritime history and technology and illustrated many books on naval ship design.

In retirement, Dave was an active and enthusiastic volunteer at the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News, VA, and could be found every Saturday at the Museum’s model making booth. Several years ago he also donated his very extensive collection of US Navy official photographs and Booklets of General Plans to the Mariners’ library, a collection that had filled six large metal file cabinets in his home.

He would lend any of his source material to those who asked. More often than not Dave paid the postage to mail the reference material to those who were seeking his assistance. All he asked was for the eventual return of the material.

He had a quirky sense of humor, loved puns, and was superb with young and old coming to the Museum’s model booth. An informed and enjoyable commentator on naval affairs and ship design, about the only subject he liked to talk about more was his dog Callie.

I know this has been a long post. I am sorry for its length. Dave deserves our thanks and recognition. Well done, Dave. RIP.