William Alfred Baker

William Alfred Baker Bill Baker was born in Seattle, Washington on December 29, 1939 to William L. Baker and Dorothy Dotson Baker. With family by his side, he left us peacefully on October 25, 2018 to ride and operate steam trains in Heaven. He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Gracie Baker; his sister Bonnie O’Neil and her husband Bill; his four wonderful children: son William T. Baker, and daughters Karen Baker (Mike Johnson), Kelley Jean Baker, and Jennifer Jensen (Matt Jensen); his grandson Ethan Jensen; and nieces Sheri Edwards and Lori Schultz and their families. In his youth, Bill developed a huge passion for all forms of transportation, ferries and airplanes and more, but especially trains, the steam engines and the electrics and diesels that came in later years. With his loving mom and dad, their activities included many opportunities for Bill to travel by train to visit cousins in Minnesota and for his sister Bonnie to enjoy her passion, horses and horseback riding. Bill graduated from Lincoln High School in Seattle and went on to earn his professional engineering degree at the University of Washington. His early employment required a move to California to work for Weyerhaeuser. That’s also where he met and fell in love with his first wife, Maureen, to whom he was married for 15 years. Son Bill and daughter Karen were born there. Somewhere around 1968 they moved to Seattle where their daughters Kelley Jean and Jennifer were born. He went to work for Boeing, designing airplane components and parts for a number of years. But Boeing and Seattle hit a hard time and even posted a sign, “Will the last person to leave Seattle turn out the lights?” So Bill and his family moved to Tacoma after Bill was hired by American Plywood Association (APA the Engineered Wood Association). Sadly, Bill and Maureen parted ways in 1978. Surprisingly, and very delightfully, Maureen continued to include Bill during holidays and family get-togethers to help (along with visitations) maintain his connection to their children. In 1982 he met his future wife Gracie, and in the fall of that year Bill invited her to have Thanksgiving dinner with him, but warned her to wait to decide until hearing the details. Turns out Thanksgiving would be at Maureen and her husband Kelly Bendixen’s home - with the youngsters, of course - and Gracie was welcomed into this amazing family group. Maureen and Kelly and Bill and Gracie remained close friends over the years! Bill and Gracie married January 8, 1983, and moved across the Narrows Bridge a few years later. In his home in Gig Harbor, Bill took advantage of the large basement to build an expansive n-scale layout, so big that he had to put a tunnel through the wall into a second bedroom for the train yard. Almost every vacation for his last 25 years was planned around a railroad convention, either railroad history or involving railroad modeling. He made sure, though, to include special side trips chosen by Gracie. Bill retired from APA in 2003, after 31 years, much of which he was manager of codes and engineering in the Technical Services Division. He enjoyed staying in contact with many coworkers after retirement, attending their yearly reunion luncheons. Bill loved his hometown of Seattle. He and Gracie took many summer day trips to Seattle to see his childhood home and go to other special places. They would often have lunch at Dick’s Drive-in on Northeast 45th Street where Bill worked as a teenager. When the Seattle Seahawks franchise started in 1976, the Seahawks joined trains, ferries, streetcars, playing pool, and bowling as another of Bill’s many passions. The loss of Bill leaves a big hole in our hearts. We will miss his beautiful smile, that gentle sense of humor and his wonderful laugh. Sound those train whistles for us from time to time, sweet husband, brother and father. We will miss you oh so much. Funeral service for Bill will be held at Lakeview Chapel, 4606 108th St. SW, Lakewood WA at 1:00 pm on November 16, 2018, followed by a celebration of his life. Arrangements by Edwards Memorial, Funerals Homes, Chapels and Crematories. 253-566-1008