My View: Father Baker’s tenacity was a career inspiration

It was 1981 and Western New York was struggling with the need for housing and programs for the disabled. Advocates from parent groups, boards of directors, people with disabilities and helping agencies were still having grassroots fundraisers and falling short, as we attempted to put together the services. The institutions were emptying, caregiving parents were aging and the waiting list from the community was severely backlogged.

I was the new executive director of People Inc., a Buffalo-based agency, serving the developmentally disabled. The demand for services was high and the guidelines were hazy. Although few would admit it, the funding sources, the local governments, and the helping agencies were often making it up as we went along.

Searching for inspiration, I researched the history of local agencies and discovered Limestone Hill Institutions and the story of Father Baker, a Civil War veteran and former businessman, an innovator in establishing helping programs. Before this my knowledge of Father Baker’s, as it was called, came from the desperate words of parents threatening their misbehaving children with, “I will drop you off at Father Baker’s.” It always worked on me.

As the advocates and the people with disabilities struggled, with the lack of funding, soaring not-for-profit debt and nervous banks, community opposition, discrimination and conflicting government pressures, Father Baker’s history was illustrative. In the 1850s, with the need desperate, little money, debt, fires and other setbacks, Father Baker carved out his Limestone Hill Institutions. If he could do it, maybe we could.

A good example was his tenacity shown with the drilling of a gas well, to reduce operating costs, which is still operating on the Lackawanna property. According to local history, the critics claimed that gas would not be discovered on the property, but Baker continued and drilled deeper. There was an accident, but Baker kept boring until gas was found and the property was heated with the drilled gas.

Further research showed that, at that time, only Baker’s facilities would accept African American children. When things got tough, I often thought back to the story of the gas well, his determination and the lack of discrimination in services provided. I was looking for examples and vision, not miracles, but during the next 34 years something looking faintly like a miracle, to us, occasionally came along. Often it would be the opening of a needed group home and the residents, living in the community, thriving with new friends and jobs.

These decades of inspiration came from Father Baker’s persistence as a human service pioneer, taking risks when he needed, and his expert guidance of a service agency, despite considerable opposition and extremely hard times.

I always had a small bust of Father Baker visible in my office. I bought a box of them and would occasionally give them to people in particularly difficult circumstances, and when appropriate a brief history of Limestone Hill Institutions. I still have a few left.