George Harry BAKER
Rhode Island Hospital 2001 Annual Report
In 1958, 18-year-old George Baker reported to work at Rhode Island Hospital for his new job as an orderly. Before long he fell in love with the nursing profession and by 1963 he had graduated from the hospital's nursing school,becoming a staff nurse. Eventually, he rose to assistant nurse leader and then clinical nurse leader. In 1973 Baker met his future wife Jackie through the Rhode Island Hospital Bowling League. On September 30, 2000, after 30 years of caring for patients at Rhode Island Hospital, George Baker succumbed to cancer.
"George spent his entire career at Rhode Island Hospital and we wanted to keep his spirit and memory alive," said Jackie Baker, a registered medical technologist in the hospital's microbiology lab since 1972. "Because of his own experience, he was a great proponent for nursing education. At Rhode Island Hospital, the motto is 'patients first.' George always believed in this from his first day on the floors."
Obviously, George Baker's love for his profession rubbed off on his children. Jason and Leah Baker are in nursing school and each works as a unit assistant at Rhode Island Hospital. To honor their father, the Baker family established the George H. Baker Nursing Scholarship in October 2000.
The scholarship will be awarded annually to a student nurse who is working his/ her way up through the hospital and exemplifies the qualities that made George Baker special. The first scholarship was awarded in 2001.
"Because of George's devotion to the profession of nursing and to education, the scholarship was begun as a tribute to him and a way for us to honor his memory," says the Baker family. "We think that George would be proud to have his name associated with the scholarship, what it stands for and who it helps."
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