Dr. Rob Baker Story ROUGH DRAFT

Dr. Rob Baker Story

ROUGH DRAFT

By: Hannah Hoffman


As Dr. Rob Baker enters Hollenbeck Hall at Wittenberg University, he brings more than just his 24 years of teaching experience into the building. His knowledge, struggles, and accomplishments have shaped him to be the professor, father, musician, athlete, and politician he is today.

Baker grew up in Bonn Terre, Missouri, a small town of 4,000 people and about an hour South of St. Louis. He was active in baseball as a young kid, played football and track, and was an avid trombone player and singer in high school.

Even though Baker was involved in many activities as a high school and college student, he cannot forget his first interaction with the political world. In his early youth, Baker was involved in boy scouts and remembers being active in his boy-scout leader’s Democratic campaign for state senator. “He was a good mentor for me,” Baker says. He also explains that his most vivid memory of discussing politics was with his “neighbor Drew,” arguing about the 1968 Presidential election between Nixon, Humphrey, and Wallace. “We talked about it because our parents were talking about it,” Baker recalls.

Despite his early involvement in the Democratic Party, Baker’s Missouri family leaned right-of-center. While his parents became teachers immediately after college and “weren’t very political,” Baker’s grandparents were small business owners of auto parts and upholstery sales. They were “fairly conservative folks” he says.

Baker’s split from his family’s politics “goes back to religion,” he says. When evaluating what the core social values of the Baptist religion were, he found that “there were a lot of questions that [he] couldn't answer” and that “it was just too restrictive.” Baker says that he identified with Democrats because of their “the core value of treating people as humans” no matter their affiliation.
Although Baker’s love for politics and government was rooted in his childhood, events throughout his life have thoroughly contributed to where he is now as a political science professor. Baker attended Central Methodist College, now Central Methodist University, initially as a music major, but “almost immediately switched to political science,” he says. He started to understand the “academic aspect of political science” and even became the president of the College Democrats during the Carter, Regan election, also his first eligible voting year. “Although he didn’t turn out to be a great president, I really liked him as a person.”

After Central Methodist College, Baker became the active city manager for Slater, Missouri and said that he “never intended to be a college professor.” “I had to make a decision and thought that an academic career sounded like fun,” Baker says. He eventually went on to the University of Missouri to receive his PhD in political science and became a teaching assistant for two years, teaching “State Politics” and “Intro to Politics.” Right out of graduate school, he came to Wittenberg University in 1987 and has been an active member in the community ever since, including involvement with the Springfield Health Board and the Rocking Horse Center.

After spending some time at Wittenberg, Baker met his current wife, Mary Jo Groves who came to the University as the health center physician. The two really got to know one another at a golf tournament that Groves organized. He remembers approaching her and asking about her tournament score. “She was impressed that I asked,” Baker smiles. He also says Groves is “a brilliant Phi Beta Kappa” and “is also a liberal” (something important to them both.) They married in 2003.

After several years of involvement in the Springfield and Clark County area, Baker decided to run for City Commissioner in 2009. There were three openings and four candidates, two already incumbents. Because the race was non-partisan, Baker attempted to get endorsements from both the Republican and Democratic parties to gain support. He only succeeded in getting the Democratic endorsement, but “received support from Republican friends.”

Baker, unfortunately, lost by just 600 votes. “It was challenging, but I’d do it again,” he says. “Before I ran, I said to myself: are you okay with loosing? You have to be okay with that to run.”

To his surprise, Baker also raised over $8500; double what he thought he would. “It was a surprise, people were very supportive.” Although the results did not win him the City Commissioner seat, Baker said that he “was confident because [he] knew about cities and had the training for the job,” but still admits that making appearances and meeting new people was “always a little bit intimidating” and “putting [himself] out there was always a very difficult thing.”
But Baker says he can’t forget the many interesting and fun times while campaigning, including the opportunity to judge a dog costume contest at the Clark County Fair.

Just another accomplishment that he can add to his list, the campaign was an overall positive experience for Baker. He continues to teach Government and Urban Studies at Wittenberg, something that has clearly interested him since early childhood.

Since 2001, Baker “made a conscious decision to reveal [his political] views in class” because he “was furious at the Bush administration.” “I tell my students: this is my opinion, take it or leave it,” he says. Baker can also recall some students, prior to 2001, who “could have sworn” that he was a Republican; something that no one in his current classes would ever think to seriously consider.

“It’s just always exciting. [Politics] is about good fights over important things.” Baker says that Hillary Clinton, Tip O’Neill, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama are among his favorite politicians, but “can’t stand” Tom Delay. “He drove me nuts! I would curse his name every time he came on TV,” Baker exclaims.

In modern-day politics, Baker and Groves are big advocates for Health Care Reform and a single-payer system. He continues to pursue his Baptist religion, sings in the Springfield Symphony Chorus, is involved in Clark County leadership, and recently got a new trombone from his wife for his fiftieth birthday. There is never too much to get involved in for Baker.