Isaac Baker Scholarship

Isaac Baker

Isaac Baker attended Keene Industrial Academy in 1900. In 1903, he married Myrtle Hickman, and began his ministerial career in the Oklahoma Conference, working with the Indians of northeastern Oklahoma. The Bakers' home, summer and winter, was a 12 foot by 14 foot tent. His salary was $15 per month, later increased to $20, for feeding his family and a team of horses.

In 1908, he served in west Texas, and returned in 1911 to Keene as dean of men. The Bakers went as missionaries to Honduras in 1912, but had to return in February, 1917, because Isaac and Myrtle were suffering from malaria. In addition, civil war was developing in Honduras, and the U.S. State Department ordered them home. He came to Arkansas to begin a long period of ministerial service with the Arkansas-Louisiana Conference.

During his service in Arkansas, he was a leader in establishing Ozark Adventist Academy. He donated the land on which it was built, and the boys' dormitory was named Baker Hall in his honor. He retired in 1945, but continued to serve as an assistant pastor in Malvern, Arkansas, a church that he had established years earlier. In 1958, he moved to California, where he continued to serve as an assistant pastor until his death in 1976.

In all, including his continued service after "retirement," Isaac Baker was a powerful and effective minister of the church for more than 70 years. His final sermon was given at age 95 on a last visit to his church at Malvern, Arkansas. He preached without notes, quoting profusely from many scriptures, with his theme of the Blessed Hope.

The Isaac Baker Scholarship was established in 1979 by his daughter, Florence May Beem. The scholarship is intended for ministerial students, in memory of the many years he served in the ministry.