Webster Bernard Baker, Jr. died June 16, 2022.  He was born to the late Webster B. Baker, Sr., and Elizabeth Hamlin Baker on August 30, 1926, in Winston-Salem. He also lived part of his childhood in High Point, N.C and Atlanta, GA.  His grandparents were the late Reverend J. H. Hamlin, born a slave and Mrs. Parthenia Stone Hamlin.  He was preceded in death by his beloved sister, Doris Baker Forbes.

Having lost use of his right arm from polio in 1938 he spent much of his early teens writing to President Roosevelt seeking admission to the facility at Warm Springs, GA for polio victims.  After graduating from Atkins High School, he attended Morehouse College, North Carolina College at Durham, Howard University and American University.

In early 1997, he was union organizer with AFL-CIO in Manhattan, NY.  During the same period, he was vice president of the Modern Trend Social Club in Harlem which helped integrate swimming pools in Palisades Park, NJ.

Bernard became the first black radio announcer in Winston-Salem at station WTOB (1947). In 1949 he was on radio stations in Durham, NC and conducted the popular, but controversial request program, "After Hours".  In 1950, he became program director of Winston-Salem's WAAA.

At the Air Force Casualty Branch (Pentagon, 1952) he helped prepare casualty notification during the Korean War for signature by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1960, the Finance and Accounts Office of the U.S. Army gave him an award for proposing and effecting a better method of paying military TDY travel.  Volunteering with the Urban League in 1963, he worked with coordinators of the "March on Washington" during which Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous "I Have a Dream Speech".  From 1963 to 1967, he was a counselor for boys, ages eight to fourteen, at Junior Village, Washington, DC's home for dependent children.

Bernard participated as officer-in-charge in opening the Veterans Assistance Center, appearing on TV news and with the Secretary of State, Dean Rusk (1968).  In 1972 he became the first black management analyst on the Management Staff at the VA Central Office in Washington, DC.  While at the VA, he received the Chief Benefits Director's "Best Letter" award (1977) and was part of the VA Task Force that assisted the Jimmy Carter transition team in establishing the first Office of Human Goals.  He served as VA representative to the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities under Carter's and Reagan's administrations.

Upon retirement in 1985, he received an "Outstanding Career Award" for sustaining a high-level of performance for more than thirty years of federal service.  In his later years, he continued to volunteer his services and often wrote opinion letters to newspapers.

Surviving are his niece, Merilyn Forbes Lockett, nephew, Conrad L. Forbes (Mary) and many other relatives. Graveside services will be held at 11:00 am on Tuesday June  28, 2022 at Evergreen Cemetery.