Charles D. Baker, Jr. - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Charles Duane Baker, Jr. was born November 13, 1956, in Elmira, New York. He bore the fourth generation of his name: His great-grandfather, Charles D. Baker (1846–1934), was an Assistant United States Attorney in New York, who served several years in the New York State Assembly. His grandfather, Charles D. Baker, Jr. (c. 1890–1971), was a prominent politician in Newburyport, Massachusetts. His father Charles D. Baker (born 1928), a Harvard graduate, was a buyer for the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, while his mother Betty Baker remained at home. Baker grew up with two younger brothers Jonathan and Alex in Needham, Massachusetts, with a second home in Rockport. He grew up playing football, hockey, and baseball; he has described his childhood as "pretty all-American".

Baker's father was a conservative Republican, his mother a liberal Democrat, and the family was often drawn into political arguments at the dinner table. His father became vice president of Harbridge House, a Boston management consulting firm, in 1965. In 1969, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where the elder Baker was named Deputy Under Secretary of the Department of Transportation under President Richard Nixon, and the next year became the department's Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs.

The family returned to Needham in 1971, where Baker attended Needham High School. In high school he served on the student council and joined DeMolay International, a youth fraternity organization. He reluctantly attended Harvard University "because of the brand", graduating in 1979 with a BA in English. He later reflected negatively on the experience, writing, "With a few exceptions ... those four years are ones I would rather forget." He then attended Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, where he received an MBA in Management. After graduating, Baker served as corporate communications director for the Massachusetts High Technology Council. (His father went on to serve as Undersecretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services under President Ronald Reagan.)