Gerald Harcourt Baker, who served as pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church from 1989 to 2003, died Saturday, May 16, at his home in Bowling Green following a brief illness. He was 69. At the time of his death, he had been suspended from public ministry for 10 years.
Baker was an influential public figure during his time in Hopkinsville, leading efforts to establish a low-power Catholic radio station and the St. Luke Free Clinic, which continues to provide medical care for residents who cannot afford primary care services. The clinic was initially in the church basement, staffed with volunteer nurses and physicians.
He was an advocate for Hopkinsville’s relationship with soldiers at Fort Campbell, and he lobbied state officials to establish Kentucky Veterans Cemetery West on Fort Campbell Boulevard.
Baker also pushed for improvements to the Catholic church campus in downtown Hopkinsville, most notably a new 14,000-square-foot church building that replaced the smaller, 1920s church on East Ninth Street. The first services were held in the new church on Oct. 5, 2002, just months before Baker’s departure to pastor in other Western Kentucky parishes.
Construction of the new church took approximately 18 months — and true to his management style, Baker was heavily involved in the planning and execution. He told a Kentucky New Era reporter that he went out to the construction site at least three times a day for more than a year “to make sure they were building it like I wanted.”
Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, Baker’s family later moved to Bowling Green, where he enrolled at Western Kentucky University and became involved with the Saint Thomas Aquinas Newman Center on campus. He became a Roman Catholic in 1975, according to the obituary published in the Bowling Green Daily News and on the funeral home website.
Baker earned a degree in philosophy at Saint Pious X Seminary in Erlanger, Kentucky, and a master’s degree in theology from Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. He was ordained a priest in 1983 in the Diocese of Owensboro.
He was widely recognized for community work during his time in Hopkinsville and served on boards for Jennie Stuart Medical Center, Alpha Alternative, the Kentucky Commission on Military Affairs, United Way and Jaycees. Among several accolades, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the Association of the United States Army.
Baker was a close personal friend of Army Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael Durant, who became a nationally recognized military figure after surviving capture in a deadly firefight in October 1993 in Somalia. When Baker chaired the United Way fundraising campaign, Durant came to Hopkinsville to help the priest and gave the keynote address during the September 1998 kick-off breakfast.
While serving in 2016 as pastor of two Kentucky churches — St. Mary of the Wood Catholic Church in Whitesville and St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Fordsville — Baker was suspended from public ministry because of a complaint of inappropriate sexual conduct involving a minor. After the initial complaint, two other juveniles alleged abuse. Baker was permanently suspended from ministry in October 2018, after a Catholic review board determined the allegations were substantiated. However, after a Kentucky State Police investigation, KSP spokesman Corey King said authorities concluded that nothing had been discovered that met the definition of a crime under state law. Details of the alleged abuse were not made public.
The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 27, at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 434 Church Ave., Bowling Green. A private burial will be at the church cemetery. Visitation will be from 2 until 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 26, at J.C. Kirby & Son Broadway Chapel, 832 Broadway Ave., Bowling Green, and from 9 a.m. until the funeral hour on Wednesday at the church.
Expression of sympathy are suggested to MEALS Inc., in care of Greg Taylor, 661 US 31-W Bypass, Suite E, Bowling Green, KY 42101.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
