James Culbertson Baker was born on Dec 3 1918 in the family home in Russell Kansas.

He grew up in El Dorado and helped at his father's auto parts business, creating a life long love of anything on wheels.  He learned to drive at the age of 8 and continued to do so for the next 91 years.

While growing up he spent time at Bolby's ranch and spent some holiday and summer time working at Bankers, the family store in Russell Kansas.  It is perhaps his time at "The Store" that instilled in him the habit of being properly dressed.

He would wear a suit and tie to go to doctor's appointments, meetings, and would dress for dinner every night at Buckner.

When he would get compliments on the way he was dressed, he used to say that he had been taught to dress up when going out so as not to look like a tramp who had just gotten off of the southbound freight train.

He graduated from El Dorado High in 1936, attended El Dorado Junior College and was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity at Kansas State University.  He graduated from K-State with a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering, saying later he wished he had taken the 3 hour courses instead of the 2 hr courses in several subjects so he could have had a double major in Civil Engineering as he spent much of his professional career doing civil engineering.

After college he worked for Curtis Wright and was working as a Tech Rep with the Air Force in Alaska during WW II when he was drafted.  He said at 8 am on a Monday morning when your name begins with B, one had a choice between the Army and the Navy.  He said he chose the Navy because he thought it was so clean; then he found out who kept it that way.

There were enough airplane technicians in the Navy, so he was sent to Radio School in Corpus Christi, TX and spent time in Farragut, ID, before being stationed at Moffett Field in California.

His cousin was at Berkley at the time and they would frequent a particular night club in San Francisco and enjoyed hearing the Lou Waters band. Even 70 years later, he could identify the exact street corner it was on, and how many feet back from the street, up the alley the entrance was located.  He really appreciated and enjoyed his music, especially the big band sound.

He always had his radio playing.  He had the radio in his workshop wired to turn on when he turned on the lights, and his radio was a staple whenever he packed a suitcase to go anywhere. In keeping with the times in his 90's, his music was transferred to an i-Pod, which he had on him at all times.  He would serenade the receptionist at Buckner, provide music for the exercise class, and would often have it out on his table in the dining room at Buckner.

After the war, he worked for Panhandle Easter Pipeline Company in Liberal, Kansas.  It was during this time that he met and, on June 3 ^rd 1951, married Maxine Davis.  They bought a little house at 402 North Perdue in Liberal.   About the time they were getting ready to welcome their second child, Panhandle Eastern wanted to transfer him to Kansas City.  They decided they didn't want to raise a family in Kansas City – so he secured a position with Wilson & Company Engineers and Architects in Salina, Kansas where he worked for the next 40 some years.

As he had done with the house in Liberal, he started working on the house in Salina.  He had his workbench set up in the basement, he built a wall of cabinets in the bedroom, cabinets in the basement, beds for the girls.  When they built on to the house in the 1960's he added solar panels to the roof, long before solar was trendy.

In the 50's summer vacations were a week in Colorado.

In the 60's they discovered RVing, and Jim discovered that RVs offer unlimited possibilities for projects.  The first little camper trailer was purchased from Maxine's cousin.  As it turned out that was the first of many – and Jim could tell you the make, model, engine size, battery capacity and wheel base of every singe one.  From then on, the family camped.

Jim and Max helped start the first Good Sam Club in Kansas, The Salina Sams.  They attended weekend campouts, the spring and fall rotations of State Samborees in Kansas and the surrounding states and many International Samborees.  He served as State President and at 98 years old went back to Hutchinson to attend a Kansas State Samboree to mark his 100 ^th Samboree.

They were active parents to the two daughters.  Vacations were always family vacations, Christmas included electric trains or bikes or other toys "for the kids" that needed putting together. New Year's Eve celebrations included family poker games and snacks.  They were active with the Girl Scouts, serving as troop leader, cookie chairman and driving to camping trips and Senior Planning Board Meetings.  For Christmas one year, they gave the whole family Lifetime Memberships.  If the girls were involved with concerts, theatre, presentations – the parents were in the audience.

The house in Salina, was near Salina High School, so the house became a meeting place, and friends were always welcomed.  Even after the girls were away at school, their friends would stop by and see Max & Jim.

It is said that the most important things that you can give your children are roots and wings.  And they did.

The girls learned to count playing cribbage.

They were taught the value of money and basics of personal finance by making budgets to justify their allowances, saving half the money for the GS summer camp fee.

Jim taught the girls about cars – they had to know how to change a tire, and add oil to the car.

When Jim and Max retired, they traveled even more extensively, RVing, cruises, trips around the US and Europe.  Having been winter Texans for many years, they moved to Seguin, TX in 1993.

Jim was a member of the Antique Auto Club of America and attended meetings and events with the Road Relics antique auto club in Austin. He would joke that he was older than most of the cars.  He amazed the other members with his knowledge of cars, and remembered every detail of every car he ever owned.

After Maxine's dementia stopped the RV trips, they moved to Green Ridge at Bucker Villas, a Senior Retirement community in Austin in 2010.

Jim was an active member at Buckner.  He went to the daily exercise class, attended the music events, played Majong on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Skip Bo on Thursday night Game Night, Bingo on Saturdays.  He always wore a jacket and tie to eat in the dining room at Buckner and not infrequently another Green Ridge resident could be heard at a neighboring table explaining to a guest that that was Jim Baker, one of the oldest residents and that he wore a jacket and tie every night to dinner.

In 2016 he attended his 80th high school class reunion, and joined a plane load of other WWII Veterans on an Honor Flight to visit Washington DC.  He received a WWII Veteran's cap that he wore everywhere after that and would get stopped by young and old to thank him for his service.

In April Jim went with his family on a Caribbean cruise to Key West and the Bahamas.  He received a certificate for being the "most senior guest" on the cruise.

The week after returning from the cruise, he went into the hospital.

One of the residents sent him a get well message to let him know he saw the certificate for being the oldest geezer on the cruise and for him to hurry up and get back home as he was the oldest geezer at Green Ridge and he was missed.

Jim used to say "They told me I couldn't take it with me, so if I can't take it with me, I'm not going."   Perhaps he decided he already had everything he needed.