Lloyd Ernest Baker

Lloyd Ernest Baker, father, grandfather and great-grandfather, died peacefully early Sunday, February 17, 2019 at Sunrise Assisted Living Home in Boulder. Born on March 17, 1927 in Daviess County, Missouri, Lloyd was the only child of Mary and Harry Baker. On his tenth birthday, in the depths of the Great Depression after a very severe winter, Lloyd and his parents left the Baker family farm and embarked on the trek west as part of the Dust Bowl Pioneer movement. The Bakers traveled in a 1931 Plymouth with only $75 in cash, arriving in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado over Raton Pass. A year later they moved north to Lyons, and in 1939 they settled in Longmont, where Lloyd lettered in track and graduated from Longmont High School. Lloyd served two stints in the U.S. Marine Corps. He volunteered in the spring of 1945, and he was called into service shortly before his high school graduation. The war ended before he completed his training on Parris Island, South Carolina, and he was discharged in time to begin attending the University of Colorado in the fall of 1946. He lettered in track under Coach Frank Potts and earned his BS in 1950, Lloyd was called back into service for the Korean War. He served for 11 months at Camp Pendleton near Oceanside, California. He met Marie Privetera at a Marine Corp dance in Oceanside on November 10, 1950, and the two married in Oceanside on October 11, 1951. They moved to Colorado a year later with firstborn daughter Leanne. The Bakers lived for three years in Greeley, where daughters Ro and Mary were born, and one year in Fort Collins. They finally settled in Boulder in 1956, where son Rick and daughter Theresa were born. Lloyd converted to Catholicism in 1959. Lloyd's early business career was in banking, but he developed a passion for the insurance industry, eventually embarking on his own as an independent insurance agent and founding Baker & Associates insurance agency. Lloyd loved to travel, taking his family on many road trips to the mountains and Western national parks, and a long cross-country trip in 1964 to see relatives in Missouri, Iowa, Indiana and New Jersey, and the New York World's Fair. In his later years, he took several trips with the University of Colorado alumni. His favorite trips were to Alaska and Africa. He loved CU sports and the Denver Broncos, and after retirement volunteered with the CU Athletic Department. He was an avid hiker, and he climbed many of Colorado's 14ers. Lloyd was preceded in death by his parents, and by his ex-wife Marie in 2008. He is survived by his children Leanne Baker (Stanley Eden), Ro Baker, Mary Baker Blades (Frederick Blades) Rick Baker (Lori Baker) and Theresa Baker (David Chappelle), grandchildren Caitlin Damani (Pritesh Damani), Carissa Blades Tiley (Kirk Tiley), Connor O'Halloran (Jocelyne O'Halloran), Micah Chappelle, Amalinde Chappelle, Beau Chappelle, Dylan Baker, Keats Baker, Ethan Baker, and Chandler Baker; and great-grandchildren Juliet Damani, Oliver O'Halloran and Knox Tiley. Funeral services will be held Friday February 22 at 10:30 am at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Boulder. Cremation entrusted to Ahlberg Funeral Chapel and Crematory. Visit www.ahlbergfuneralchapel.com to share condolences.