Herb Baker, physician and former Register-Guard managing editor, dies at 97

Dr. Herbert C. Baker, a prominent physician in Eugene from 1966 to 1990 and the last living member of the second generation of the Baker family that ran The Register-Guard for 91 years, died Sept. 1 at Cascade Manor in Eugene. He was 97.

Born Sept. 16, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, the fourth of five children born to Alton F. and Mildred Moody Baker, Herbert Clow Baker moved with his family to Eugene when he was 18 months old in 1927 after his father purchased the Eugene Guard newspaper.

Herb and his four siblings would grow up in what was then a town of about 18,000, first at the turn-of-the-century house on East 11th Avenue, just east of High Street, before the family moved to 1910 University Street in 1933.

One of Herb’s earliest memories involved an 18-year-old gas station attendant named Bill Bowerman, circa 1929. Four-year-old Herb dashed across 11th and was struck by a car driven by Springfield City Councilman Eiler Brown, the fender of the vehicle dragging Herb along the road. Bowerman scooped young “Herbie” off the ground and carried him home.

A scar beneath Herb’s left eye was visible for decades. Perhaps his penchant for toughness, endurance and courage during a life that lasted 15 days short of 98 years stems from that day the future track coach and Nike co-founder fetched him from the middle of the road.

Herb attended Washington and Edison elementary schools, Roosevelt Junior High School and University High School in Eugene, graduating from the latter in 1943. He played football and swam for the Golden Tide and loved to tell stories about how he won the state championship in the 50-yard freestyle, only to be disqualified for finishing in the wrong lane, and how he sacked Eugene High’s quarterback for a 25-yard loss at Civic Stadium in the fall of 1942. A 155-pound offensive and defensive tackle, Herb had 11 unassisted tackles in the 13-0 loss to the Axemen in what would be his final game after his two front teeth were crushed and his spleen bruised.

Herb was also an avid Boy Scout and attained the rank of Eagle Scout at the age of 14.

At Roosevelt, Herb met the love of his life, Martha Louise Thorsland, in the eighth grade. They started “going steady” junior year of high school and fell in love dancing to Big Band-era music at Merrick Dance Studio at 861 Willamette St. They were married on June 21, 1947, at Eugene’s First Congregational Church.

Martha had just graduated from the University of Oregon and Herb had one year left at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Before that, Herb spent almost two years in the U.S Army Air Corps (precursor to the Air Force), stationed in Colorado, Washington, California, Texas and Nebraska, as he learned slow rolls, snap rolls, spins and loops in Stearman biplanes, UC-78s, AT-18s and AT-60s. He earned his Air Corps wings and graduated as a second lieutenant at age 19 in 1945.

Herb finished his liberal arts degree at Cornell in June 1948, a month after Ann Elizabeth, the first of their four children, was born. The new family moved back to Eugene and Herb gave law school a try at the UO before deciding a life as an attorney wasn’t for him.

He went to work at the family business, first as a cub reporter making $35 a week when the Eugene Register-Guard was still on Willamette Street, across from the McDonald Theatre; copy editor after the move to the 10th and High location in 1952; city editor in 1954; and managing editor from 1955 to 1958.

It was during that last stint that Herb solidified himself as the black sheep of the family, resuming the pre-med classes he first took at the UO as a 17-year-old in the summer of 1943, before being accepted at the UO Medical School in 1958.

Now a family of five after the births of Mary Melissa in 1952 and David Herbert in 1955, they moved from Eugene to a cozy home on Old Scholls Ferry Road in Portland’s Raleigh Hills neighborhood.

Herb would say medical school was the hardest thing he’d ever undertaken and worried he wouldn’t be able to complete the four-year program. But he graduated in 1962, and fourth child Mark Delmont was born three months later.

A one-year internship at Portland’s Multnomah County Hospital followed, and a rotation in obstetrics would lead to a record-setting 12-day stint in which Herb and his partner delivered 58 babies. After a couple of years of 80-hour work weeks and losing 20 pounds that had him down to just 135 pounds on his 5-foot-11 frame, Herb began a three-year residency at the Rose City’s Veterans Administration Hospital. There, he would find his sub-specialty, gastroenterology, and learn how to perform gastroscopies, a procedure that used a thin flexible tube to examine the upper digestive tract.

Herb started his internal medicine practice in Eugene in 1966 and became the first doctor to perform a modern gastroscopy at Sacred Heart Hospital.

He worked in the days when family doctors still made house calls and made the “rounds” with patients at the hospital. This is when Herb was at his best, when his skills as a healer were most evident.

Herb was a member of the Eugene Country Club for 57 years. He never shot par at the nationally renowned course (his best score was 74), but he did shoot three holes-in-one over the years.

Martha was always the center of Herb’s universe, and we were all so grateful he was by her side when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2001. He remained by her side for the next decade, serving as both husband and caretaker until she died in 2011. Together, they saw the births of four grandchildren and enjoyed multiple vacations to Hawaii as well as trips to Canada, Germany, England, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Turkey.

Perhaps their favorite trip, though, was the 1995 Rose Bowl game as they attended the annual Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, and watched their beloved Ducks battle Penn State.

Herb would spend the final 14 years of his life at Cascade Manor, living to see the births of two great-grandchildren. He just kept going, defeating one malady after another, until his body finally wore out. But his spirit will live on in all who knew and loved him as we remember all the good he did for his family, his patients and his community during a fortuitous life.

When his children were young and would ask those sorts of unanswerable questions that kids always ask, Dad’s response was often the same: “Just lucky, I guess.”

Herb was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Martha, and his son-in-law, Douglas Maybee, of Seattle. Survivors include his four children, Ann Baker Mack (Donovan), of Eugene, Mary Baker Maybee, of Seattle, David H. Baker, of Eugene, and Mark D. Baker, of Victor, Idaho; five grandchildren, Christopher Mack, Tyler (Sally) Mack, David Baker II, Drake Baker and Addison Baker, all of Eugene; and two great-grandchildren, Declan Mack and Emery Mack, both of Eugene.

A private family memorial was held at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Eugene on Sept. 29 with two airmen from the McChord Field Honor Guard in Tacoma providing military funeral honors.

Donations in Herb’s name may be made to the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic Development Office, 2260 Marcola Road, Springfield, OR, 97477, or the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund, 360 E. 10th Ave. Suite 201, Eugene, OR, 97401.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

View this obituary at the Legacy website.

— Mark Baker