Rev. Dale Edwin Baker, age 91, peacefully passed into the presence of the Lord, whom he loved and served for over 60 years.  Dale was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania in the Mercy Hospital, the fourth of five sons to Sidney and Mary Baker. In 1936, he moved with his family to Northumberland, Pennsylvania, where his father established the Baker Tire Service which he operated for 30+ years. Dale was a graduate of Northumberland High School, class of 1952. He played both basketball and baseball. He was an outstanding athlete. Upon graduation, Dale enrolled at the Practical Bible Training School, later Davis College, in Johnson City, New York. Dale excelled in both basketball and music. He was part of a championship basketball team for 3 years, leading in scoring (once having scored 52 points in a single game well before the 3-point shot).

Upon graduation, Dale traveled with his brother Tom, and wife, Jane, for two years in evangelistic meetings. They held a city-wide crusade in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Dale had a beautiful baritone singing voice and was the soloist and song leader for the crusades. Later, he pastored a church outside Sunbury, Pennsylvania. It was at this time that he heard the call of God to Africa under the ministry of his sister, Mary. He immediately applied to Baptist Mid-Missions and was accepted in 1958. Dale and his family, after a year of language school in France, went to the Central African Republic. For many years, their ministry consisted of bush-work, evangelism and the training of national pastors.

Dale and his wife, Ethel A. Baker (née Gault), his college sweetheart, continued to serve the Lord upon return from the field of Africa by pastoring a church in Vidalia, Georgia. The couple later moved to Salem, Ohio where they lived for several years before moving to the Bradenton Missionary Village in Bradenton, Florida. Not content to retire to a life of ease, Dale started Baptist New Church Mission; traveling extensively, speaking in local churches, camps and Bible colleges. His beloved wife, Ethel, went to be with the Lord in 2017. 

Dale remained single for four years and later met and married a pastor's widowed wife, from Lakeland Florida. Dale and Caris resided in Caris’s home in Lakeland. In recent years, Dale became ill, spent some time in the hospital, and later, a rehab facility in the area. Dale is survived by a brother Jerry, of Matthews, North Carolina, two sons and two daughters, a number of grandchildren great grandchildren, and his second wife, Caris, of Lakeland, Florida.

Please join us for a memorial service at Grace Bible Church on Monday, March 31 at 11 AM.