The Rev. Will Roger Malave of Torrington asked the hundreds of people who gathered at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church Monday morning to reveal who Jody Baker truly was.
“Don’t be shy,” was Malave’s plea during the Mass for Baker, a longtime Waterbury educator and special education teacher who died of a heart attack at the age of 59 last Wednesday.
He was described as a mentor, a good friend and colleague, a humble and good man.
“Jody made your day with his smile,” said Sacred Heart High School guidance counselor Mark Saukas, the school’s former longtime baseball coach.
More telling was the eulogy delivered by Baker’s colleague, Debora Taylor, the director of guidance at Sacred Heart.
“It takes respect, compassion, patience and, of course, a sense of humor to be a teacher of his caliber,” said Taylor. “Jody had it all … I can’t think of starting school in the fall without Jody.”
Employed by the City of Waterbury to serve the city’s parochial schools, Baker split his days alternating between Mount Carmel and Blessed Sacrament and Sacred Heart High as a special education teacher.
Taylor noted that Baker’s finest attribute was his unique relationship with students.
Just ask Waterbury native Anthony Spinelli, now 26, who was taught by Baker at Mount Carmel from second to eighth grade. Spinelli is now in his third year as a special education teacher in Ridgebury Elementary School in Ridgefield.
“For me, Mr. Baker taught me to realize my own potential and be an advocate for myself,” said Spinelli at a reception at La Bella Vista. “He had the perfect balance as a teacher, mentor and friend.”
And as a father figure to so many, said Waterbury’s Ron Putetti, 27, who is a close friend of Baker’s son, Adam. Putetti and Adam were classmates at Mount Carmel and later at Holy Cross High.
“From the time I was in kindergarten, Mr. Baker treated me like one of the members of his family,” said Putetti. “He was always there to give me advice and told me to go for what I wanted and not to listen to the naysayers.”
Putetti is furthering his education in counseling, as is Adam Baker, a member of the Republican-American sports department.
Jody Baker graduated from Holy Cross High in 1974. He met Marilyn, his wife of 28 years, when they both were teachers at St. Margaret’s School in 1982.
“We would talk in the lunchroom and I would see how he would connect with the students in class,” said Marilyn. “I saw how wonderful of a man he was. He was such a genuine person.”
They began dating in 1985 and were married in 1987. Hours before he was stricken at his home last week, Jody and Marilyn talked of his impending retirement.
“Jody loved to cook and always would invent new recipes,” said Marilyn. “He said that he would write a cook book in his retirement. I preferred he cook, bigtime. I would always say for him to put some taste into the dishes with sauces and spices because sometimes my cooking came out blah.”
An avid Bruce Springsteen fan, Adam and his dad would attend concerts together.
His colleagues at Sacred Heart spoke of Jody Baker’s attire on casual Fridays featuring a sweatshirt, jeans and Converse sneakers. He rarely liked wearing formal attire, although his niece, Nicole DiCocco, 35, recalled being pleasantly surprised to see her uncle in a tuxedo at her debutante ball at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City as an 18-year-old. “Jody always thought of someone else,” said Sacred Heart teacher and golf coach Michael Madden.
Taylor noted that in the past, she always looked to Baker for guidance in giving speeches because “he always knew exactly what I wanted to say. Jody was always my go-to guy. I struggled with this eulogy. There are no words to accurately express the essence of my friend.”
(REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN, MARK JAFFEE, JULY 21, 2015)
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