Baker, Ernest W., Jr. 1926-
BAKER, Ernest W., Jr. 1926-
PERSONAL: Born October 20, 1926, in Sedalia, MO; son of Ernest W. (a business owner) and Sara Elizabeth (Staples) Baker; married September 4, 1948; wife's name Joan E. (a homemaker; deceased); children: Robert, Michael. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: University of Missouri, B.J., 1948. Politics: Republican. Religion: Lutheran. Hobbies and other interests: Farming.
ADDRESSES: Home—2441 Cedar Key Dr., Lake Orion, MI 48360. E-mail—erniewbaker@msn.com.
CAREER: Zimmer-Keller, Inc. (advertising agency), employee, beginning 1948; E. W. Baker, Inc. (advertising agency), Troy, MI, founder and chief executive officer, 1964-89; BBDO Detroit, Troy, MI, executive vice president, 1990-2000; writer, 2000—. Military service: U.S. Army, Infantry during World War II; served in the South Pacific.
MEMBER: Veterans of Foreign Wars, Adcraft Club of Detroit.
AWARDS, HONORS: D.Sc., Cleary College.
WRITINGS:
A Fifty-Year Adventure in the Advertising Business, Wayne State University Press (Detroit, MI), 2000.
WORK IN PROGRESS: A novel.
SIDELIGHTS: Ernest W. Baker, Jr. told CA: "I began my fifty-two-year career in the advertising business with the Zimmer-Keller, Inc. advertising agency in 1948. I founded the E. W. Baker, Inc. advertising agency in 1964 and was responsible for guiding that agency through twenty-six years of operation. The agency was acquired by DDB Needham Worldwide in 1990, but in 1993 the agency's parent corporation, the Omnicom Group, transferred the accounts and staff to BBDO Detroit.
"During my career in the advertising business I handled the advertising for companies in a variety of business categories. Some of these companies I was involved with for many years—two of them for more than forty years. They include Standard Federal Bank, Stroh's Beer, the Detroit Tigers baseball team, Better Made Potato Chips, Awrey's bakeries, Little Caesars, Michigan Apples, Huron Cement, Hardees, Howard Johnson's Restaurants, Vernor's ginger ale, and several divisions of the Stanley Tool Works. I retired December 31, 2000. My career is described in the book A Fifty-Year Adventure in the Advertising Business."