Among the extraordinary ‘army’ of young men who either grew up at the former Happy Valley golf course in Lynn or learned the game before turning pro from its legendary head professional, Larry Gannon, Dick Baker was among the group that served the game under the radar.
In his case, that lasted more than a half-century.
Baker, who was 86 when he died earlier this month, was “the consummate golf professional, said Danvers’ Donnie Lyons, a former New England PGA president and member of the NEPGA Hall of Fame. “Dick was a well-respected teacher and player, a great ambassador of the game during a career in which he touched thousands of lives, always with positivity and a smile.”
Baker’s love for golf took him to several assignments. A good friend of the late Paul Barkhouse (another Gannon protégé who became a North Shore pro standout), Baker began his head professional career at Locust Valley Country Club in Attleboro (1976-81), followed by a seven-year stint at Beverly Golf & Tennis Club (1981-87).
“I’ve loved this game so much,” Baker told this agent on several occasions as his career wound down. “It’s given me and my family (wife Elaine, sons Richard and Seth) a wonderful life.”
Baker spent one year at Thunder Hills Golf Club in Madison, Ohio before beginning a 33-year association with Lynn-based Golf Facilities Management Inc. (GFMI). That was founded by Steve Murphy and Mike Foster, the dynamic team that made Larry Gannon the premier municipal golf facility in Eastern Massachusetts.
After Foster ended a 44-year career in the Larry Gannon pro shop as head pro, PGA pro Chris Carter jumped in as golf operations partner to Murphy, who groomed Gannon and their other GFMI layouts for decades.
Baker, who retired in 2021, oversaw the golf operations at Gannon, Kelley Greens in Nahant, and Pine Meadows in Lexington for GFMI from 1988-98. He then moved to Hillview Golf Course in North Reading as director of golf, his final stop in a distinguished career teaching the game, providing the correct equipment for his golfers and providing a million laughs along the way.
“Dick epitomized what a PGA pro should be,” said Carter, who manages the golf side of the business for GFMI in 2025 at Gannon, Beverly and Hillview. “He loved teaching. He knew equipment and always enjoyed playing, especially his late afternoon matches with Murph.
“Best of all,” added Carter,” Dick was the life of the room. He kept everyone smiling and laughing. That was part of his complete package as a club pro. It included his dependability and commitment to every golfer who walked in his pro shop.”
“Dick was one of many caddies from ‘The Valley’ who lived out his dream by becoming a PGA club pro,” added Lyons, who manages the two public nine-hole courses in Lynnfield. “Dick had all the qualities a course wants in their golf professional — especially the friendliness that makes you feel comfortable — whether you were a colleague pro like myself or a person seeking to learn the game. So approachable; such a fine communicator of all aspects of the game.”
Baker was neither flashy nor a competitor who often made headlines in tournaments. Rather, he was one of the thousands of PGA professionals who do their job quietly and effectively day in and day out — in his case for a half-century at the courses he served.