![]() Upon recuperation, he returned to the University, completing his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in 1948. He earned the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. Eventually he was able to hobble out to allied forces and after 9 months in Army hospitals, returned to Eugene 60% disabled. Praying to God to bring him out of the jungle alive, he vowed that he would devote his life to helping others. In part he credited his scout training for his survival. Ted escaped after the fight by rolling down a steep cliff, eventually making his way to the Torokina River, where he spent three days behind enemy lines. While defending an observation post on Hill 260, he was severely wounded, during a Japanese onslaught that left every other man in the patrol dead. After basic training at Camp Roberts in Calif, he was shipped to New Hebrides, Fiji, Guadalcanal and eventually to Bougainville, an island in the Solomon chain. The Army conscripted the entire Corps in the spring of 1943. He enrolled in the Army Enlisted Reserve Corps. Ted graduated from University High in 1942, and after brief summer as a lookout for the Willamette National Forest, began attending the University of Oregon. This was to serve him well during the war. A member of Troop 2, he earned his Eagle Scout rank at Camp Lucky Boy on the Blue River in 1936. He attended the First Congregational Church on Harris St., which his father had helped to establish. Ted grew up a stone’s throw from the University of Oregon. ![]() then merged with the Register in 1930 to form The Register-Guard. He moved to Eugene in 1927 at the age of 4, when his father bought the Guard newspaper, which Baker Sr. He was 97.īorn in Cleveland, Ohio, he was the third child of Alton F. Former Register-Guard Publisher and volunteer fundraiser Edwin “Ted” Baker died September 3, 2021.
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