Blanchard and other members of the MSU community were shocked to hear Baker died in Lansing’s Sparrow Hospital after collapsing on MSU’s campus during a jog last Wednesday afternoon.

MSU officials did not release the cause of death.

“The entire chemistry faculty and all of Greg’s colleagues in the various departments at MSU, all his former students and all of his present students all feel the massive void that is left by his passing,” Blanchard said.

Even after his death, members of the MSU community have remembered Baker’s character, and several members of the chemistry department and Baker’s graduate students traveled to Pennsylvania for his funeral Tuesday.

Graduate student Rosario Amado, who was mentored by Baker, described the professor’s soft spot and encouraging nature.

“You find few professors that can give you advice in professionalism, and personally, he was one of those professors,” Amado said in a phone interview from the road Monday. “He would go out of his way to help you and he would make time to listen to you.”

Chemistry department chair and professor Rob Maleczka made the drive with Amado for Baker’s funeral, and en route to Pennsylvania, he reminisced about the first time he met Baker.

In 1995, Maleczka was considering taking a position with MSU, and on his second visit to campus, Baker invited him to have dinner with him and his wife.

“That was the first time I’d been to any of my colleague’s homes,” Maleczka said. “These are the kinds of things that come back to you when something like this happens.”

Aside from being a smiling and welcoming face for the chemistry department, Baker was someone who could apply chemistry to nearly any topic.

“If you talked to him about science, you’d know real quick he was extremely smart and had an impressive vision in how his chemistry could play a pivotal role in all sorts of research projects, using solar energy and artificial bones, using membranes to purify proteins,” Maleczka said.

Baker was cool, laid-back and approachable to both his colleagues and his students, Maleczka said.

Baker also was an avid fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and chemistry professor and colleague Mitch Smith, a fan of the Dallas Cowboys, said the rivalry didn’t get in the way of their friendship or work.
Smith said Baker was a great father and husband.

“If this proves anything, we have to live like he did and live every day to its fullest because you never know when it’s going to be the last one,” he said.
Staff writer Samantha Radecki contributed to this report.