A Memorial Service honoring the life of C. Edwin (Ed) Baker will be held on Saturday, April 10, at 1:00 pm at Harris Funeral Home. A Madisonville resident throughout his childhood, Ed Baker attended Stanford University, Yale College of Law, and was a Fellow at Harvard on three different occasions. Ed Baker was a resident of New York City at the time of his death. He was also a Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also held a joint appointment as Professor of Communications at the Annenberg School.


Ed Baker's four published books, Human Liberty and Freedom of Speech, Advertising and a Democratic Press, Media, Markets, and Democracy, and Media Concentration and Democracy: Why Ownership Matters, dealt with the First Amendment and with media policy. He also authored over 70 professional articles and book chapters, as well as numerous Op Ed pieces over the years, including two published in the New York Times. Yale Professor Jack Balkin describes Ed Baker as "the finest media law scholar of his generation." His current work focused on the threats to democracy poised by the concentration of media ownership and the loss of active newspaper reporters. He testified before Congress last year on these issues. Professor Robert McChesney, co-founder of SavetheNews.org, writes that: "It is impossible to gauge the immensity of the loss with Ed Baker's passing. He has been the leading constitutional scholar on matters of freedom of the press for two decades. His commitment to a strong free press and a vibrant democracy guided all of his work." Professor Baker was working on his fifth book at the time of his death as well as preparing to present a paper at the International Human Rights Conference in Israel.

Since his death, the University of Pennsylvania Law School Class of 2010 has awarded Ed Baker the prize for Outstanding Professor. Additionally, the law school has named an award honoring public service by students to be presented annually at the Law School graduation the C. Edwin Baker Award for Public Service. Several Symposia, including one that the recent International Human Rights conference in Israel have also been dedicated to Ed's memory, and he has been remembered by scholars and friends around the world.

Ed Baker, known as Eddie during his childhood, was the son of the late Falcon O. Baker, Jr, and Ernestine Magagna Baker. He is survived by his sister Nancy Baker of El Granada, CA.

Friends may call from 11 a.m. until service time Saturday at Harris Funeral Home in Madisonville. Burial will be in Odd Fellows Cemetery.

The family will host a reception at the Baker Building for Community Service at 3 p.m.