Richard Edgar “Dick” Baker, of Virginia Beach, went home to be with the Lord on Sunday, September 20, 2026, at the age of 89. Born in Norfolk on June 14, 1937, Dick was a beloved husband, father, granddad, friend, minister, mentor, and teacher.
Dick was raised in Norfolk, a boy who pedaled his bike to ballfields all over the city, often with a friend riding the handlebars. After graduating from Maury High School, he attended the Norfolk College of William and Mary, where he earned a Bachelor of Science and, more consequentially, met a New Jersey girl named Paula Andrews. They married and shared the next sixty-six years together.
For more than twenty years, Dick taught biology, chemistry, and ecology at Norview Junior High, Lake Taylor High School, and Kellam High School, earning a Master of Education from the University of Virginia along the way.
During those teaching years, he began attending First Baptist Church of Norfolk, quietly sitting in the balcony. It was there that he came to faith in Christ and was baptized in 1968. What began in the balcony became the great turning point of his life. He taught Sunday School, served as a deacon, and eventually became chairman of the deacons.
That calling changed the course of his life. In 1984, Dick enrolled at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, traveling home on weekends until he earned his Master of Religious Education in 1986. That summer, he joined the ministerial staff of First Baptist Church of Norfolk. Over more than two decades, he served in singles ministry, evangelism, adult ministry, and finally as Minister to Senior Adults before retiring in 2008. Even then, he continued teaching and shepherding adults at First Baptist well into his 80s.
Over the years, Dick shared Jesus boldly and warmly. He was honored to baptize new believers, join couples in marriage, and walk countless families through loss with comfort, steady faith, and a peace that passes understanding.
By his side through it all was Paula. For sixty-six years, they were true partners and friends. Together, they built a family he cherished. He treasured his son, Daniel, and loved his daughter-in-law, Liz, as his own. To his grandchildren, Ryan and Rachel, he was a steady, present, and adored “Pop Pop.”
His sense of family reached far beyond the names in this obituary. Coming from a small family, Dick built a much larger one around him through church, teaching, ministry, neighbors, and decades of friendship. He cherished his friends and his community and considered so many of them family.
And he knew how to enjoy life. He loved to travel, loved the outdoors, and enjoyed the people around him. A devoted New York Yankees fan, few things pleased him more than a ballgame, a good hot dog, and a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.
Dick faced his final days with genuine assurance and peace. He saw death not as something to dread, but as a homecoming. In his last weeks, he said he was overwhelmed by the love, support, and prayers surrounding him and that he had finally come to understand what it meant to feel people’s prayers.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Elmus and Blanche Baker, and his brother, Elmus E. “Pete” Baker Jr. He is survived by his wife, Paula Andrews Baker; his son, Richard Daniel Baker, and daughter-in-law, Liz Barrett Baker; his grandson, Ryan Daniel Baker; and his granddaughter, Rachel Elizabeth Baker.
One more thing.
Many people who knew Dick eventually heard him ask a simple question, because he genuinely wanted to know and genuinely cared: “If you died tonight, do you know for certain that you’d be with God?”
Dick believed that he didn’t earn his way to God by being good enough. He believed God, out of love, closed that gap through Jesus Christ, and that being made right with God is a gift received by trusting Him, a gift available to us all. He staked his life on that truth, and he faced death believing it fully.
Dick knew his life was drawing to a close, but he didn’t know Sunday would be his last day. None of us are promised tomorrow. His hope, the one he’d want to leave with each person who reads this, is that we’d all trust Christ the same way he did, and know the same peace, joy, and certainty he had every day.
If you want to know more about what he believed and why, a pastor at First Baptist Church of Norfolk would love to talk to you. Reach out at (757) 461-3226, [email protected], or firstnorfolk.org.
