AUGUST. 7, 1976
Military funeral services were held yesterday at the Valley Forge Military Academy and Junior College for Lieut. Gen. Milton G. Baker, who founded the institution in Wayne, Pa., in 1928 and retired as supetintendent in 1971. His age was 79.
General Baker died in his home, “Crossed Sabres,” in Wayne last Saturday.
The services were held in the Chapel of St. Cornelius the Centurion on the campus, and burial was in the Baker Mausoleum in the chapel.
General Baker, who began his military career as a private in the artillery in World War I, was twice during the Administration of former President’ Dwight D. Eisenhower offered the position of Secretary of the Army, but declined because of commitments to the institution.
He was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1918, serving at the New York port of embarkation and later with the War Department in Washington. He resigned from the Army in 1921 to begin a long career with the Pennsylvania National Guard.
Following a series of promotions, he became inspector general of the Pennsylvania National Guard in 1939, and in 1940 was selected from a group of 150 colonels to serve as deputy chief of staff under Lieut. Gen. Hugh Drum of the First Army. It was said to be the first time a National Guard officer had received such an assignment.
The Pennsylvania National Guard was alerted for active duty in 1941. In 1942 he was in charge of training more than 10,000 Air Corps cadets for commissions, and in 1943 was appointed a brigadier general, placed in command of the Pennsylvania Guard, and was named a major general in 1945. He was promoted to lieutenant general in 1956.
For three years General Baker was chairman of the Reserve Forces Policy Board of the Department of Defense, and was a personal adviser to the then Secretary of Defense, Charles E. Wilson. President Eisenhower appointed him the United States chairman of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Syrvivors include his wife, the former Josephine Louise Redenius; a daughter, Ann Baker Martin, by his first wife, the former May Hagenbuch, who died in 1970, and two grandchildren.
A version of this archives appears in print on August 7, 1976, on Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline: Gen. M. G. Baker Dead. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
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