Ed Baker, 100, receives Legacy Award from Arc of King County
June 29, 2010
By Chaitra Sriram
Local resident Ed Baker, who recently turned 100, is greeted by a mascot at Legoland, where he has celebrated his birthday for the past 10 years. By Jack Austin
One hundred years ago in Seattle, Minnie Baker, a local schoolteacher, had given birth to her son Ed, who had a developmental disability. When Ed was old enough, his mother tried to enroll him in a public school, but he was denied entry. At the time, children with disabilities were not allowed to attend public schools.
However, Minnie Baker did not give up on her son’s education; she moved to a chicken farm in Issaquah and opened a two-room schoolhouse for Ed. She had founded the first special-education program in the country, which formed the roots of what would later become the Issaquah School District.
The Bakers’ chicken farm is now a development, but two acres of the property, including the old farmhouse, have been set aside for Ed Baker.
“Ed gets to live on the family farm for the rest of his life. He’ll never move off of it,” said Bill Dussault, Baker’s lawyer. “We asked the developer to keep the old farmhouse. If you drive by, you’ll see this little white farmhouse in front of the development, so Ed can still have that sense of living on the chicken farm.”
Baker recently celebrated his 100th birthday and was honored by the Arc of King County with the Living Our Legacy Award at a luncheon May 27. (ARC is the oldest nonprofit organization serving children and adults with developmental disabilities and their families in the Greater Puget Sound area.)
“I know of no one who is even within 20 years of his age who has been diagnosed with a developmental disability,” said Dussault, who is on the national board of the Arc and has been intensely involved in the disabilities movement since the late 1960s. “His life duration is truly remarkable, and I think, in large measure, it is because he did have the opportunity to live on the farm, and to grow up in a natural environment where he was valued.”
On the farm, Baker would chop and saw wood, and make sure that the chickens and their eggs were warm enough. He was given the chores by his mother, who gave him all of the opportunities that the other children experienced.
“Ed had the full opportunity to be included in education and in regular childhood activities from the very beginning. And I think that’s what makes him so special is the fact that he’s just natural,” Dussault said.
Along with his farm chores, Baker has had many hobbies. In the 1970s and early 1980s, he spent most of his time playing with Lincoln Logs.
“You couldn’t buy him one set of Lincoln Logs, you had to buy him 10,” Dussault said, leading up to an anecdote about how Ed made a 6-foot-tall Smith Tower replica and won a trip to Reno, Nev., in a Lincoln Log contest.
Baker’s current hobby is putting together Legos and he celebrated his birthday doing them with the students in the special-education class at the local middle school. A figurine of Baker is also now a permanent part of an exhibit at Legoland, which he has visited on his birthday for the past 10 years.
Throughout the century of his life, Ed Baker has been a part of his community.
“I’ve been taking care of him for almost 40 years now, and we don’t make that a big deal,” Dussault said. “He’s just a part of the family.”
Sylvia Fuerstenburg, executive director of the Arc, said at the luncheon that she had known Baker for some time and had dinner with him on several occasions. He and his family have been very involved in the Arc, and their gift of some of Mrs. Baker’s land had funded the Arc and enabled them to help many others with developmental disabilities, she said.
“He’s a wonderful, wonderful guy,” she added.
In a video sent to the Arc during the awards ceremony, Gov. Chris Gregoire said, “I would especially like to thank Mr. Ed Baker and the legacy he and his family have provided the Arc.”
As Baker touched his award, he read his name engraved into the crystal and said, “It’s wonderful.”
Chaitra Sriram is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.
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