Nick Baker | |
State Senate: | Kentucky |
District: | 38th |
Term Start: | January 1, 1970 |
Term End: | January 1, 1978 |
Predecessor: | Vernon McGinty |
Successor: | Danny Meyer |
Birth Name: | Henry Nicholas Baker |
Birth Place: | Hazard, Kentucky, U.S. |
Party: | Democratic |
Education: | Georgetown College (BA) University of Louisville (JD) |
Henry Nicholas Baker (born 1937) is an American politician from Kentucky who was a member of the Kentucky Senate from 1970 to 1978. He is known for his efforts to promote women's basketball in Kentucky at the high school and collegiate levels.
Henry Nicholas Baker was born in Hazard, Kentucky in 1937. After graduating from Hazard High School in 1955, Baker attended Georgetown College, where he was a member of Kappa Alpha, and graduated in 1959. He then served six months of active duty before joining the U.S. Army Reserve. Baker moved to Louisville in 1960 and began law school at the University of Louisville School of Law.[1] Before graduating in 1966, he worked for the General Motors Acceptance Corporation and an insurance claims adjuster.[2]
Baker was first elected to the senate in 1969, defeating incumbent Republican senator Vernon McGinty. He won reelection in 1973, but was defeated for renomination in 1977 by Danny Meyer.
Baker served in the transportation and judicial committees and was chair of the cities committees. As a member of the transportation committee, Baker sponsored included legislation to standardized the colors of emergency vehicle lights statewide and to make license plates reflective and use a standardized numbering system. He also sponsored a bill which used federal money to fund Louisville's parks and public transportation (including the Transit Authority of River City) when Frank Burke was mayor of Louisville.
Baker served with Georgia Davis Powers, the first African American elected to the senate. In 2010, he was interviewed by Anne Onyekwuluge and discussed his work with her, her influence, and the civil rights movement.[3]
In 1974, Baker introduced Senate Bill 73. The bill required that any school with a men's basketball team that received state funds would also have to establish a women's team as well; women's basketball had been discontinued in Kentucky since 1932.[4] As the Kentucky Historical Society would later note, the bill "met opposition from schools that did not want the extra cost associated with a girls’ team or the issues sharing facilities would bring ... but Baker persisted and it passed."[5] The bill was also passed over the objections of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA) who claimed they had organized a tournament which consisted only of a few parochial schools.[6]
Baker's mother played basketball in the late 1920s to early 1930s and was a member of Hazard High School's 1930 state championship team. Baker is the nephew of Gene Baker, who was the Republican candidate for the 23rd Senate district in 1955. Additionally, his uncle by marriage is Bill Engle; who was a Democratic member of the house and senate.