Sometimes it took Bill Baker “30 minutes to walk through the Denver Press Club” because he knew everyone and had to chat with each person, said his son, Reginald Baker of Pueblo.
Bill Baker, the first African-American camera operator with a network-affiliated television station, died Jan. 10 after a long illness. He was 80.
Ebony magazine published a story on Baker when he was named a TV “cameraman.”
Baker, at 6 feet 3 inches, “was a booming personality with a booming voice,” said his daughter, Diane Baker of Pueblo.
“He was a man of great wit and an infectious laugh who was a great storyteller,” said a longtime friend, Roger Walton of Lakewood.
Everyone was his friend, Walton said. “He never thought of me as white or himself as black. We were just all people. He was comfortable with who he was and made other people comfortable with who they were.”
Walton was working for Gov. John Love when Baker was a cameraman and they met later when Baker was doing public relations for the Denver Chamber of Commerce.
Their paths crossed again when both worked for Blue Cross/Blue Shield — Baker in public affairs and Walton as a lobbyist.
“He was very skilled at television production,” said Tom Mulvey, a longtime Colorado radio professional. “And he was always a gentleman.”
Baker also worked for KR Graphics, a division of King Resources.
Baker liked fancy cars, motorcycles and golf.
“He was the best slicer I ever saw,” said his son, adding with a laugh, “He could play two fairways at a time.”
William A. Baker was born in Pueblo on April 25, 1928, and graduated from Centennial High School.
He attended Pueblo Junior College (now Colorado State University at Pueblo) and got a job as a janitor at KCSJ-TV in Pueblo.
Baker often could be found looking at the cameras, and “the station manager took him under his wing,” said his daughter. Eventually Baker got jobs building sets, film editing and finally running the camera, said Kate Borden, his life partner.
For a while he had a weekly Pueblo radio program called “A Baker’s Dozen” and did another program called “Scope.”
He came to Denver in 1959. While working at KOA, he covered civil rights marches in the South and the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
He was a charter member of the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado and won a Lifetime of Excellence Trophy from Colorado MAC (Media Agent Client) magazine, which was published for about 20 years, Mulvey said.
He married Hazel Lee in the 1940s, and they had two children. They later divorced. He married Rose Cap’ Deville, and they divorced in the 1970s.
In addition to Borden and his two children, he is survived by six grandchildren and four great- grandchildren. He was preceded in death by a great- grandson, J’sai McLeod.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
