August 29, 2011
Monday

Your memories of Bill Baker as a Ketchikan character really touched me and was so very accurate. I worked at the Ketchikan Daily News along with my wife in the early Seventies and was a little afraid of old Bill Baker as the former newspaper rival of my publisher with whom he'd reportedly had street altercations.

He was doing the evening news on TV, and we'd be amazed at how precisely his stories followed the accounts in our newspaper the same day. We eventually noted that he was reading the paper on the air. Nobody cared. Everyone really had a soft spot for the old Chronicle editor.

One night we saw him at the Frontier Bar and wondered how in his state he would make it back to the TV station to deliver the news of the day. But there he was on TV, sitting on that stool, reading away. Only this time he slumped over and read slower and slower, finally falling off the stool during his broadcast.

A few weeks later my wife and I ran into him, and he asked us to follow him to his smoke house for some really good smoked salmon. He made the best, everyone said. He loaded us up. He were worried how much he much ask for reimbursement. He waved off any offer of payment and was so gracious. He said he just hoped that we enjoyed it. I think of Bill often, as a real pioneer and frontier newsman.

Von Braschler
vonbraschler [at] gmail.com
St. Paul, MN