Meet George B.

Academic Pioneer

By now, tens of thousands of students have walked through doors of the Fitzgibbons Health Technologies Center, which was dedicated in 1986, turned left and entered HVCC’s largest instructional classroom space - George C. Baker Lecture Hall.

Outside the 190-seat lecture hall, hangs a bronze plaque that notes Professor Baker’s accomplishments, beginning in 1955 when he was hired as a junior instructor all the way through his nearly 20-year term as department chair for the math and science and engineering science programs.

Plaques certainly don’t tell the whole story of the impact Professor Baker had on the college, and his role, along with other early administration and faculty members, on the growth of Hudson Valley Community College.

When he arrived in the mid-1950s, HVCC was still HVTI, the Hudson Valley Technical Institute, located in a rundown former factory building in downtown Troy. When he finished his tenure in 1983, Hudson Valley was established as one of the most well-respected two-year schools in the SUNY system.

“During his early years at the college, returning from war and still being in his 20s and 30s, a lot of his students were his age or close to it. He was there at the transition between what was essentially a technical training school and a community college that also served students who wanted to complete a four-year degree through transfer,” said Baker’s son, David.

It was an opportune time to be working at the community college, the younger Baker said, with a core group of individuals who were dedicated to seeing the institution grow and succeed. When George Baker arrived, the college served just under 500 students; when he completed his tenure in 1983, the college had nearly 8,500.

Baker was largely responsible for the creation of the Math and Science and Engineering Science degrees, and thanks to his connections with faculty at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the college began, and students have long benefitted from, the close relationship between the two schools. Hundreds of students through the years have started their engineering studies at HVCC and finished them at RPI.

“My brother was one of those students. He started at Hudson Valley and then transferred on to RPI,” David said.

One of seven Baker children, David said he literally grew up with the college, attending groundbreaking ceremonies for campus buildings and Friday night basketball games at a packed gymnasium, alongside his father.

But what resonates with him the most are the occasions when former students would stop his father in a parking lot, restaurant or grocery store and excitedly tell him about their career or future plans. “They would often turn to me and say something like, ‘I’ve got a career now because of your father, because he believed in me.’ As a kid, that kind of experience sticks with you,” he said.

Baker even experienced his father’s impact firsthand while taking a high school technical drawing class in high school. One day, his teacher leaned down and whispered: ‘Your dad was one of my teachers at Hudson Valley and now I’m your teacher. Your dad inspired me to become a teacher.’

“It’s one of those defining moments in my life. I don’t know what you call it, maybe charisma, but he had a personality that really inspired people,” David said.

Maybe that’s why three years after George Baker’s passing, when the Fitzgibbons Health Technologies Center was dedicated, the college decided to honor one of its most dedicated faculty members who had impacted so many students’ lives.