By Gretchen Keiser, Staff Writer

MARIETTA – Father Bob Baker, Marist pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish for nine years, was laid to rest from that church after a Mass celebrating the victory of resurrection won in Jesus Christ.

Members of the parish on Lacy Street gathered the evening of Nov. 3 and filled the 750-seat church which had been envisioned and built while Father Baker was pastor. After suffering from throat cancer for three years, the priest, 53, died at the rectory on All Saints Day, Nov. 1.

Three combined choirs from the parish provided music during a Mass which Father Baker had helped plan. The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s messiah and the Victory Chant, a rhythmic, youthful anthem to the lordship of Christ, asserted Christian faith at a time when Father Baker’s friends, parishioners and family members also grieved his death.

Sister Barbara Baker, MHSH, who also serves in the archdiocese, sang the spiritual her brother requested, “His Eye Is On The Sparrow,” to a hushed church.

While “there is an aspect of death that frightens us,” Father John Ulrich, SM, said in his homily, our faith reassures us that “Jesus Christ transformed death from an enemy bent on our eternal destruction to a friend.”

“There is no death for those who are caught up in God and certainly Bob was caught up in God,” he said later in the reflection. “At this very moment our beloved brother and friend is experiencing joy in all its fullness.”

Born in Rochester, N.Y., May 7, 1941, Father Baker joined the Marist order in 1963 and was ordained a priest 25 years ago in January 1969.

Although he served the Marists in vocations and seminary work, he spent most of his priesthood in Marist parishes in Georgia, including two in Brunswick and St. Simons Island, and then the Marietta parish of St. Joseph founded by the order over 40 years ago.

Made pastor in 1985, Father Baker initiated a three-year Parish Evaluation Project, using a Chicago-based church team to help parishioners survey parish needs, examine and develop lay leadership and plan for the future.

The airy and soaring new church, dedicated in February 1991, emerged from needs identified in the planning process and also from a further parishwide liturgical design consultation.

It was only a few months after these major accomplishments that Father Baker was diagnosed with cancer in the throat and underwent surgery at Emory University. Since then he experienced both joys and sorrows in his illness, which was in remission for two years until it was detected again in May 1993. Following a parish healing service that September, Father Baker learned that five biopsies showed no cancer and additional surgery was cancelled.

However, in March 1994 he wrote an open letter to his people acknowledging that the cancer had returned and spread. He chose a permanent tracheostomy so he could minister and work as long as possible. He continued to live in the rectory and be present to the parish and school, even after his speech ended and he communicated through his computer and a message board.

Father Ulrich acknowledged he was one of many giving Father Baker prayer requests in his last months of life. Once Father Ulrich wrote on the message board, “Ask Our Lord and Blessed Mother to send Marist vocations” to serve the needs of the church.

“Everyone has a list of things they want me to do when I meet the Lord,” Father Baker joked back in his written response. “It will keep me very busy. Haven’t you heard of eternal rest?”

Father William F. Rowland, SM, principal celebrant of the Mass, expressed gratitude of the Marist order to the parishioners who were “angels” helping to nurse Father Baker, sending messages of support and love and sharing his journey.

He also asked the congregation, which included many young people, “Who here will take Father Bob’s place” in serving God.

Father Lawrence Schmuhl, SM, who concelebrated the Mass along with current pastor Father William Seli, SM, said his friend was “a joy to be with, and when you can say that in a family, that is high praise.”

Msgr. Louis Naughton, one of about 40 concelebrating priests, represented the archdiocese at the funeral and said in his illness Father Baker “was a living homily of true Christian faith, Christian hope, Christian love.”

Described as a planner and a worker, Father Baker became more and more open to others and able to receive their love, several said.

From schoolchildren at St. Joseph’s he received a larger than life book of prayers, each page with a child’s picture and their promised prayers for him.

First-graders put their hand prints on a large white T-shirt and pillowcase so he would be surrounded by their love.

On the other hand, he sometimes dodged professional nurses in favor of time spent with people on the parish grounds, or driving to medical appointments with friends.

“His life was such a witness to his faith,” said parishioner Paula Mundy, an oncology nurse who took a leave of absence to oversee his care this fall.

“He wanted very much to live, he wanted to stay in the world, he worked until the very last,” but eventually he offered the pain he had as his prayer.

When he was no longer able to celebrate Mass because of his loss of speech, Father Baker would visit the young people preparing for the Sunday evening teen Mass and pray with them. From this youth group came the rousing Victory Chant chosen as the closing song for the funeral.

Burial took place at Westview Cemetery in Atlanta the morning of Nov. 4.

In addition to Sister Baker, who is pastoral associate at Transfiguration Parish, Marietta, Father Baker is survived by his brother, William, of Scottsville, N.Y. and four nieces and nephews.

Contributions in his memory may be made to the St. Joseph Catholic Church Building Fund, 87 Lacy St., Marietta, 30060.