Charlie Baker died on September 16, at the age of 101. He and his wife, Weezie, founded Baker Industries in 1980. He was still a member of our board the day he died.
We made the film below to show at our gala. It tells you who he was, so I will not repeat it here. What I want to write about is what he meant to this place, and what he meant to me.
Baker did not begin with a mission statement. It began with two parents looking for somewhere their son Justin could work and be successful. They looked, and they did not find it. So they started bottling furniture polish in their garage in Strafford and gave Justin a job.
What they made for one person turned out to be what a lot of people needed. Baker grew to make room for anyone locked out of work, and tens of thousands of lives have been changed since 1980.
People come to us after years out of work. For some, Baker becomes the place they stay, where the work suits them, they are good at it, and they are known. For others it is a step. They spend a while here learning what a job actually asks of a person, showing up, taking responsibility, working out a disagreement instead of walking off, and then they take that somewhere else. Both of those are a success. Weezie said it better than I can: “We focus on the ability, not the disability.”
And I cannot think of a better person to learn work ethic from than Charlie Baker. He outworked everyone in the building. He never took a salary, and when the company ran short he and Weezie lent it their own money. He was kind to every person who came through here, and he never stopped smiling. None of that is in a handbook.
I did not get as long with Charlie and Weezie as I would have liked. I was grateful to have their guidance, and we will follow their example for years to come. At 101 he was still keeping close tabs on us, still asking how the work was going, and still playing squash every week. I think about that most days.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, October 17, at Wayne Presbyterian Church in Wayne.
Charlie’s family published their own obituary, and Gary Miles Wrote about Charlie for the Inquirer. Both have things in them that none of us knew.
The Baker family’s official obituary → https://www.cremationofpennsylvania.com/obituaries/blue-bell-pa/charles-baker-13040536
The Philadelphia Inquirer, by Gary Miles → https://www.inquirer.com/obituaries/charles-baker-obituary-industries-philadelphia-jobs-20260922.html
The work continues. That is the part he would have asked about.
Nic Watson
President, Baker Industries
