First UPEI President Was Also Library Founder

The UPEI Robertson Library joins with the rest of the University community in acknowledging, with sadness, the death of Dr. Ronald J. (Ron) Baker. 

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From the Library's perspective, an especially notable feature of Dr. Baker's time as UPEI's first President (1969 -1978) was his leadership in planning and fundraising for the new University's first major capital project, the construction of the Roberson Library. Announcing the fundraising campaign for the Library project in April, 1973, Baker declared:

"If there is to be a University here then this is necessary."

Dr. Baker was also an avid supporter of the University Archives, having endorsed the proposal for an institutional archive as "a great thing," as early as 1971. Throughout his time as President and, later, as a faculty member, he was singularly proactive and generous in donating his papers (and artifacts, including his numerous awards and medals) to the Archives. Dr. Baker continued to support and encourage the Archives, the Library, and the University at large all through his retirement. Keenly interested in the application of new technologies in higher education and research, he was an enthusiastic participant in the IslandScholar institutional repository of University research publications after its launch in 2008.  

As a proponent of the University's need to honour and care for its institutional heritage, it is fitting that Dr. Baker was able to participate in the celebrations of the University's 50th Anniversary last year. Interviewed at the time (see below), he made it clear that his enthusiasm for the Library was undiminished:

"I thought the library was the absolute centre of the university. ... I was really pleased with the library. I've always been nuts about libraries."