Richard Dean Baker

Dick Baker, 74, of Castle Pines, Colorado passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack on October 25, 2024.

Dick was born in Sioux City, Iowa on June 27, 1950, to Samuel and Marion Baker. After high school, he joined the Air Force and is a veteran of the Vietnam War, serving in Southeast Asia. He then attended Iowa State University and earned his Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering. 

After college, he headed to the west coast, where he met his wife, Kris Walsh, and they were married on August 8, 1981, in El Cajon, California. 

He worked as an Aerospace Engineer on Space Station Robotics, Airborne Warning and Control System and his true passion – as a trajectory engineer on the Delta Launch Vehicle – from McDonnell Douglas to Boeing in Southern California to United Launch Alliance in Colorado. He especially enjoyed his trips to Vandenberg Air Force Base for his day of launch on-console assignment for NASA missions. After retirement, he kept pursuing his love of Astronomy as an Advisory Board member of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ.

Dick enjoyed travelling with his wife, sons, and extended family and friends - going to three eclipses, semi-annual trips to Arizona for Lowell Observatory, and annual Minnesota trips, starting in his childhood with family fishing trips, to family reunions with his in-laws. Most recently, he was in Minnesota for a family wedding, where he connected with many of his extended family.

Dick is survived by his wife of 43 years, Kris Walsh, sons Connor Baker and Rory Baker, and sisters: Barbara Stevens of Divide, Colorado and her husband, Tim, and Marilyn Scott of Nebraska City, Nebraska, as well as many cousins, nieces, nephews, brothers in law and sisters in law.

Dick is preceded in death by his parents, Samuel and Marion Baker, a brother, Robert Baker, brother in law James Scott, brother in law Patrick Walsh, sister in law, Maureen Walsh, and cousin, Dean Delong.

A Celebration of Dick’s life will be held at Horan & McConaty Mortuary, 5303 E. County Line Road, Centennial, CO 80122 on January 17, 2025 at 3pm. Dress is casual. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Lowell Observatory.