His was a life of giving, say friends, co-workers of pilot

Joseph Bakervolunteered for his church and his community.

A day before Joseph E. Baker died in a fiery plane crash, a co-worker at the real-estate office where he worked overheard him talking to the couple he planned to fly to Boston.

The Brookfield, Conn., pilot told the couple, Robert and Donna Gregory of Riverhead, N.Y., that if they wanted to spend some time in Boston before returning home, that would be fine by him, the co-worker said.

"Don't worry about my time. This day is for you," he told them, according to Linda McCaffrey, owner of McCaffrey Realty Professionals. "My time is yours."

It was typical of Baker, she said, a man who gave much but asked for little in return.

"Joe thought of everybody first," she said. "He lived his life to help others, and that is why he was a truly happy person."

A day after the crash that killed Baker and the Gregorys, friends described Baker as a man who was so actively involved in the town of 16,000 southwest of Hartford - he had his hand in everything from town government to church leadership to the local board of education - that it was hard to keep track.

In fact, McCaffrey said, most people didn't know Baker flew for Angel Flight, a group that transports patients to hospitals for free and the reason he was flying the couple to Boston.

The day he signed up, she said, "He was so excited."

It combined his love of flying with his love of giving. Giving and asking for nothing in return is the common narrative of stories about Baker.

Rev. Ann Beams of Brookfield's Valley Presbyterian Church, which Baker attended, called him "a great man."

"I would say he was an anchor of the community as well as the church," she said.

Beams said she remembers Baker, who was 65, as the kind of person who would do the small and thankless odd jobs for the church - such as putting up the star at Christmastime or filling candles.

An elder for his church, Baker served as the church's treasurer and was on the board of trustees of the Presbytery of Southern New England.

He served on the board of directors for the Brookfield Education Board, volunteered on the Brookfield Republic Town Committee, and helped organized charity work with the Northern Fairfield County Association of Realtors.

The latter is how Betsy Pankulis, the association's president, came to know Baker.

He worked with the association's scholarships committee and organized projects with Habitat for Humanity and the Special Olympics, she said.

"He was just doing good deeds out of the kindness of his heart without looking for any kind of acknowledgment ever," she said.

Even at the office, Baker tried to avoid the limelight, said McCaffrey. She remembers having to persuade him to promote himself in the paper to drum up business.

Baker would ask people to bring a small piece of the world to him when they traveled, and he kept a collection of jars filled with sand at his desk.

He once organized a surprise Mardi Gras parade for the office, float and all. The fact it was pouring rain didn't deter him, McCaffrey said.

She also remembers his eccentric blue tux jacket.

"He was so cool because he was so uncool, and he didn't care," she said.