Bill Baker's nurse walked into the Baker home in Gilbert for the first time wearing an unmistakable grin.
It's a grin the former North Arkansas College president's wife, Bonnie, has come to recognize. It's the expression she watched come over the faces of three decades' worth of students when they saw her husband.
"That nurse walked in and said, 'Dr. Baker, I can't tell you how pleased I was to see that you were going to be one of my patients. I am where I am today because of you,'" Bonnie recalled Sunday.
Baker, the founding president of North Arkansas College who led the school through its infancy in 1974 and into the 21st century, died Friday from complications stemming from a 2009 stroke. He was 84.
Baker directed the two-year college with a personal touch rare to the state's institutions of higher learning. Sometimes with a handshake and always with a smile, Baker greeted students at the front door each morning. On casual Fridays, he wore overalls.
Former students and family members can hardly utter a sentence about Baker without mentioning his defining trait -- love.
A Gilbert native, Baker considered it a privilege of a lifetime to steer the college only 20 miles from his small hometown.
"It was the most unusual experience for him to come home and have the opportunity to help provide education to families in a rural area and get them a few hours of college," said Baker's daughter, Julia Baker Howry of Austin, Texas. "That was his joy, and he loved it."
Baker attended Arkansas Tech on a basketball scholarship, and he earned his master's and doctorate degrees from the University of Arkansas.
For such a learned man, Baker never forgot to have fun, his wife said. It's the reason he was overjoyed to have North Arkansas College's amphitheater bear his name.
"He knew it'd be used by the whole area and the whole community," Bonnie Baker said. Today, the Bill Baker Amphitheater hosts a variety of concerts and an annual summer movie series.
The college will close on Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. for students and staff to attend Baker's funeral, which will be held at the L.E. "Gene" Durand Center at the downtown Harrison campus.
Northark President Randy Esters credited Baker for building the college into the school it is today. He remembered spending a few hours with Baker on his first day in Harrison.
"I learned all I need to know about being the president of Northark in that time," Esters said. "He leaves a legacy and some people have compared me to him. That's the best compliment I could ever receive."
Baker remained close to the school after his retirement in 2001. He enjoyed dancing and traveling to the south of France with his wife. He often filled in for absent pastors at local churches. True to form, he ended all his sermons with a message of love.
He danced with his wife of 63 years one last time four days before his death. Lying in bed, he used his one good arm to lead his wife on one last swing to "Waltz Across Texas."
"He could still twirl me," Bonnie said.
Metro on 01/09/2017