bio compiled by Jim Moyer 2013, updated 3/17/2017, 8/29/2019, 9/8/2019
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Print version of this website page on Norman L Baker
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Norman Baker passed away
around 11:30pm,
24 August 2019.
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Norman Baker
will be buried
near Daniel Morgan
in the Mt Hebron Cemetery.
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We have some difference in dates and times shown in here, but will update with corrections.
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Editorial: Norman Baker a ‘History Giant’
by Adrian O’Connor in the Winchester Star, Aug 28, 2019
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Every community, group, or organization — if it is to sustain itself — needs leadership. No mystery there. But it also needs a spirit, a guiding light.
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The local French & Indian War Foundation has been so blessed myriad times — Linda Quynn Ross, elegant organizer, and Carl Ekberg, fiery historian, come immediately to mind.
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Still, if you were to ask anyone within or associated with the foundation, who the group’s Polaris happened to be, the answer would, in so many cases, we believe, be Norman Baker.
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Mr. Baker, who died Saturday night at the grand old age of 93, was indefatigable in his enthusiasm for early American history, particularly (of course) the French & Indian War period. For example, in his vintage, he navigated and walked the entire length of Braddock’s Road, from Alexandria to the ill-fated banks of the Monongahela. His passion for Fort Loudoun and Washington’s well was of a like sort.
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Even high into his eighties, Mr. Baker remained every inch the Marine who fought on Iwo Jima. To see him tangle with Dr. Ekberg from the foundation stage on some aspect of the war that brought them together was a sight to behold — and to enjoy.
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Now Dr. Ekberg will be obliged to joust alone. But the man whom Ms. Ross called her “History Giant” will not be far from the professor’s mind. Or from that of anyone else for whom the French & Indian War is a worthy topic of study and spirited discussion.
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Norman Baker Obituary
Winchester Star published 8/30/2019
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Norman L. Baker, war hero, scientist, publisher and historian passed away at the age of 93 on Sunday, August 25, 2019. He embodied the true American spirit with an unfaltering dedication to his country, his family and the preservation of our nation’s history.
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Baker, a 60-year resident of Fauquier County, Virginia lived a long and fulfilling life both professionally and personally. He was born in Reyno, Arkansas in 1926, a child of the Great Depression, learning early the value of hard work and perseverance. He served our country with both bravery and distinction in two major wars.
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Norman received his BS degree as an aerospace engineer at the Indiana Institute of Technology, was a member of the White House Press Corps, and was a noted historian of the American Colonial Period. Most importantly, he was a devoted family man who cherished spending time with those he loved at his home, Summerset in Virginia.
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TWO WARS
Entering the military at age 17, Norman fought courageously and heroically as a Fourth Marine Division soldier in the Pacific Theatre including the battle of Iwo Jima. He later served two tours, often on the front lines in the Korean War. Norman served as past President of the Fourth Marine Division Association.
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EXPLORING OUTER SPACE
Following his graduation from the Indiana Institute of Technology, where he received the Order of the Silver Slide Rule Award, Norman joined Boeing as a Development Engineer on the Bomarc Missile Program. He was credited for having initially proposed the development of a Space Shuttle vehicle in October 1955. Later he was asked to move to Washington, D.C. to be editor of Missiles and Rockets magazine. While in DC, he founded Space Publications, a publishing company covering the defense and aerospace industry through newsletters, such as the Defense Daily and Soviet Aerospace. Norman was also a founder and president of the National Space Club, which began in 1957 to recognize American leaders in the space program. He established the annual Astronautics Engineer Award in 1958, which seeks to recognize the nation’s most outstanding space engineers.
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Norman was an esteemed member of the White House Press Corps where he served as a White House correspondent for six administrations; He also served as a Senate and House Press Gallery correspondent, and was Dean of the Pentagon Press Corps.
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BOARD MEMBER
In his later years, Norman was an enthusiastic researcher of the American Colonial Period, served as a historian of the French and Indian War Foundation and a board member of the Braddock Road Preservation Association.
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French and Indian War books:
He compiled what is considered to be one of the most comprehensive studies identifying and locating forts of the French and Indian War. He is the author of Frontier Forts of Berkeley County (1999), French & Indian War in Frederick County, Virginia (2000), Valley of the Crooked Run: The History of a Frontier Road (2002), Fort Loudoun: Washington’s Fort in Virginia (2006), Braddock’s Road: The Final Thrust (2011), Braddock’s Road: Mapping the British Expedition from Alexandria to the Monongahela (2013) and Braddock’s Road: Historical Atlas (2016).
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AWARDS
Norman received a number of awards during his lifetime including the Golden Owl award of the National Press Club, the Life Membership Award of the National Space Club, the 1959 Congressional Robert Hutchings Goddard Medal, the Stewart Bell Jr. Award, the Shenandoah University’s President Award, the Fort Loudoun Award, the 2013 Judge Robert Woltz History Award. In 2011, he was inducted into the Virginia Historical Series Hall of Fame.
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Norman will be lovingly remembered by his wife, Suzanne, his brothers Glenn and Donald Ray; his children Gary, Molly, Syntha, Suzy and Maggie; grandchildren Lora, Alexandra, Catherine, Matthew, Cameron, Patrick, Harrison, Kathryn and Jack; great-grandchildren Taylor, Imogen, Sawyer and Izobel; and godchildren Tucker and Tommy.
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Norman was preceded in death by wives, Peggy Woody, and Lois Shanner Baker, his son, Alan Dale Baker and sisters, Rose Mary Babcock, Glenda LaBlance and brothers, Eugene Baker, Charles Baker.
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FUNERAL
A funeral service will be conducted at 11 a.m. on Thursday, September 5, 2019, at Omps Funeral Home, Amherst Chapel, 1600 Amherst Street, Winchester, Virginia.
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Interment will be in Mount Hebron Cemetery, Winchester, Virginia. A luncheon will follow the interment at the George Washington Hotel, Ft. Loudoun Room.
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Please view obituaries and tribute wall at www.ompsfuneralhome.com
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Virginia History Series on Norman Baker:
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http://virginiahistoryseries.org/vhs2_web_site_06272013_193.htm
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Norman Baker’s Books
The World Wide War Google Map
has heavily used Norman Baker’s books.
Click on each book below to purchase,
or click on our shop .
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This atlas debuted at our
November 6, 2016 Annual meeting
of the French and Indian War Foundation
$30.00, + 7.00 shipping and handling ($37.00)
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In 1755, Major General Edward Braddock and two army regiments set out from Alexandria with the objective of capturing Fort Duquesne, near present-day Pittsburgh. To transport their sizable train of artillery and wagons, they first had to build a road across the rugged Appalachian Mountains. It was almost 289 treacherous miles from Alexandria, Virginia, by way of Fort Cumberland in Maryland and on to the French fort; the road they built was one of the most impressive military engineering accomplishments of the eighteenth century.
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Historian Norman L. Baker chronicles the construction of the road and creates the definitive mapping of even those sections once thought lost. Join Baker as he charts the history of Braddock’s Road until the ultimate catastrophic collision with the combined French and Indian forces.
Click on: books authored by Norman L Baker
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A little bio on Norman L Baker. Click on this Link.
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Below is a Two-part story
about Norman L Baker,
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a member of the Board of Directors
of the French and Indian War Foundation,
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published September 18, 2013,
written by Adrian O’Connor
in his Valley Pike series
in the Winchester Star.
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To read this,
left click
and then image appears,
you will see
a tiny magnifying glass
as your cursor
and so click again
for a readable size.
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Japan TV interviews
Norman Baker
about Iwo Jima
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May 3, 2015
Norman Baker, Board member of this French and Indian War Foundation and who was in the battle of Iwo Jima in WWII, will be interviewed by a national TV crew from Japan, in the Ft. Loudoun Room, George Washington Hotel, Winchester, Virginia.
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See Japan Today article only shows reader commentary now
and a Radio Australia article
and the Huffington Post article
on Norman Baker and Yoshiko Shimabukuro.
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Both the 18-year-old U.S. Marine and the 17-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl had known the enemy only from the virulent propaganda they had been fed. When they finally met their foes in the closing months of World War II, in separate, back-to-back battles hundreds of miles apart, it was on the most terrifying terms.
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“I threw off the safety on the Thompson and prepared to kill him. His eyes pleaded for his life as he turned enough to show me that he had been shot in the back in the area of his right shoulder blade.”
The Marine behind Baker yelled at him to quickly kill the soldier. Baker said no. He was taking the man prisoner.
After making the soldier strip to his underwear to be sure he was unarmed, Baker gave him a cigarette and some water. Then he was taken away.
“I have always wished that I could have found out what he did with his life.”
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David Preston alerts Norman Baker
of a prestigious book review
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David Preston on 17 December 2015 alerted Norman L. Baker, Board Member and Historian for French and Indian War Foundation of a review of Norman L Baker’s book shown below.
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The Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research , the premier journal for any scholarship dealing with the British Army and published in the UK, has a review of Norman L Baker’s, “Braddock’s Road: Mapping the British Expedition from Alexandria to the Monongahela.”
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Norm Baker’s book on Braddock’s Road was favorably reviewed by none other than J.A. Houlding, who has written, “Fit for Service: The Training of the British Army, 1715-1795,” one of the most important books on the British Army in the eighteenth-century that has ever been published.
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Excerpts of review:
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“The result is definitive, a tribute to his scholarship, perseverance, and obvious devotion…All subsequent students of Braddock’s march will need to have this definitive work to hand…perhaps the Braddock Road Preservation Association might see fit to produce for historians and enthusiasts a detailed route-map showing Baker’s findings.”
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Another excerpt:
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Norman Baker has been through all of the textual and cartographical sources both contemporary and modern; his work has been extremely thorough and, as he walked the route himself, it can be said that his research has no doubt been exhaustive in more ways than one. The result is definitive, a tribute to his scholarship, perserverance, and obvious devotion.
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For Complete Review, click to enlarge:
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See this link for online articles of
Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research.
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See this link about the society, and this link to their website.
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More on David Preston with Norman Baker
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David Preston, author
This email of January 13, 2016 was sent from David Preston, author Braddocks Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution to the Foundation’s Board members Norman Baker, Dr Carl Ekberg and Steve Resan :
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“This is a long overdue note of my deepest thanks for the great honor you saw fit to bestow upon my book Braddock’s Defeat, the 2015 Judge Robert Woltz History Award of the French and Indian War Foundation.
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The lovely gorget hangs in a place of honor in my office. Receiving such an unexpected award–especially from my friend and colleague Norman–is a memory that I will long cherish.
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I greatly appreciate the work that the French and Indian War Foundation has done, and it goes without saying that I am always at your service. I hope that my book will bring added attention to the sites and the history that you are preserving and interpreting.”
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Photo shows author David Preston (left) is wearing the gorget, which is the Judge Robert Woltz History Award. Norman Baker(right) Board member is the Foundation’s historian and who fought on Iwo Jima in WWII.
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