he was born in aberdeen, maryland and studied at johns hopkins university. he did graduate work at the university of leipzig in germany, then returned to baltimore to complete his ph.d. at johns hopkins in 1895. for the next decade he taught german language and literature at hopkins and served as a music critic for the "baltimore sun". in 1909 he became director of the jacob tome institute, a prep school for boys in port deposit, maryland. he moved to pittsburgh in 1919 to take an administrative position at carnegie institute of technology. when tech's first president, arthur hamerschlag, resigned in 1922, baker became the second president.