Thomas Charles Baker
June 15, 1942 - September 25, 2024
His legacy began when he met Wanda Kay Bentle at a church camp in Indiana. She was 16 years old, and he was 17. They dated long distance for a year; they were an hour away from each other. They were married at 17 and 18 years old on November 25, 1961. They started a family right away and had four children, two years apart. Kellene was the first born, then came Jeff, Deborah, and John. He is survived his by his wife, Wanda Kay Baker, his four children and their spouses, Kellene Joy (Mike) Kroeker, Jeffrey Todd (Tracey) Baker, Deborah Lynn (Chuck) Douma, John Thomas (Debbie) Baker, 18 grandchildren, and 30 great-grandchildren.
He served in the Marine Corp for 4 years in California. They moved to Elko, Nevada for about 10 years, where he provided for his family while his wife was a stay-at-home mom. At times, he had multiple jobs as a firefighter/EMT, a butcher, and started his own cleaning service. He was quite the Entrepreneur! In 1974 he moved his family to the great and beautiful state of Montana. There, he started another business and had a very successful asphalt maintenance company.
After several years, he felt like God was calling him into full-time ministry. He began taking classes at MSU to prepare himself for Bible college. He then, with his wife and his youngest son, John, moved to Scotts Valley, California in 1985 to go to Bethany Bible College. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree. He was an associate pastor for several years in San Francisco and Sacramento. He started another small business in Sacramento while pastoring, selling homemade taffy and frozen yogurt. His final pastoring years were in Watsonville, CA as senior pastor for twelve years. There, he also started another business in asphalt maintenance. After 22 years of ministry, in 2007 he moved back to Montana to retire, but he had to start one more small striping business before retiring permanently.
Who was Thomas Charles Baker? Seen through the eyes of his children.
He was a man that loved his Heavenly Father first and foremost. He made time daily to pray, read his bible, and worship Jesus. One of us remembers coming into his bedroom and he was face down beside his bed praying and weeping, not knowing he was being watched.
He knew the unconditional love of his Heavenly Father and he loved his family through that same lens. He was a committed, loving husband for almost 63 years. He showed a lot of affection in hugging, kissing, and more times than I want to count, gentle pats on mom’s backside. As a father, he was never too busy to make time for each one of us. His daughters would regularly climb up into his lap for snuggles. His sons would wrestle with him on the floor to the point of exhaustion. If any of us kids were struggling with something, the invitation to talk was always there. Some of us took him up on that more than others!
One of the most amazing things about Dad was that he always had a positive outlook on every situation. He did not have a negative thing to say about a person or circumstance. He always looked at it in a positive light and trusted God no matter what. He was known for giving repeated opportunities to those down on their luck or those who had previously made poor decisions in life.
As we became parents ourselves, we had such an example of what unconditional love looked like. None of us obviously have been perfect parents, but because of what we saw, it helped us be better parents. Dad was busy showing us God’s unconditional love, not just talking about it, but living it. His life was all about being an example and role model to everyone he met. Dad was a man small in stature but a giant to everyone who knew him, but especially to those who knew him as husband and dad.
A Memorial Service will be held Monday, October 7, at 2 P.M. at Refuge Church in Belgrade.
Arrangements are in the care of Dokken-Nelson Funeral Service. www.dokkennelson.com [dokkennelson.com]
