Dan Baker was sitting in the doctor’s office. He recently had knee surgery, and now it was time to take out the sutures.
The doctor pulled out a surgical staple remover, what looks like a cross between tweezers and scissors.
Baker did a double-take. “I have a patent on that damn thing,” he remarked.
The doctor let him keep it.
Doctor’s visits, a child’s Popsicle, wind turbines, space walks, cans of soda pop — all of these are tangible signs of a life spent thinking and inventing for the 78-year-old Mukilteo resident.
Of course, Baker — a Catholic-educated electrical engineer — would object to being called an inventor.
“An engineer doesn’t create anything. God creates. What we do is make known,” he said. “So I make known — this can be done.”
Over the years, particularly during the 1960s, Baker helped to reveal ways to reduce scrap waste for Popsicle makers, to power an 11,950-pound wind turbine, to cool the suits of spacewalking astronauts, and to produce the tools needed to create a soda can pop-tab suited to a woman’s finger.
He has held 18 patents over the years, some shared with others, many of which have since expired. About half involved the tool-and-die experience he gained during an apprenticeship with General Electric before attending Gannon University in Erie, Pa.
Most of his creations have heady descriptions, such as “Series-Thyristor Subsynchronous Damper for Power Generators” and “Vernier Control System for Subsynchronous Resonance Mitigation.” Like much of his consulting work, the designs were often behind-the-scenes workhorses or supporting actors.
A few of the pieces — circuit boards, chips, motor parts — now sit unceremoniously piled in a cardboard box, which Baker will pull out on request and give lessons on circuitry, electrical currents or inertia.
“It’s just circumstances,” Baker said. “People who are designers and can think in abstract terms have an awareness most people don’t.”
He recalled mulling over the problem of a company that manufactured toothpicks and Popsicle sticks. They paid the consultant to visit and figure out how to diminish the amount of scrap they produced making the tiny objects. As he sat in the airport on the way home, he watched a young girl licking a Popsicle and realized the solution lay in the core of frozen sugar water where the stick is inserted. The company’s scrap was reduced to less than 2 percent.
“You can’t say you’re a genius. You’re just watching and observing and, bang, a bell rings,” Baker said.
These days, Baker talks to groups of fellow seniors and to schoolchildren about how to think outside the box. He uses words like epistemology as well as desire, the need to think in the abstract as well as keep your feet grounded in reality.
He wants people to learn how to think, to think about where they come from and where they’re going, as well as thinking about the problems at hand.
“Old age, sometimes wisdom comes with you. But sometimes old age comes alone,” he quipped.
Baker and his wife, Rita, have been married 58 years. They are active in their church, St. Mary Magdalen. And they’re looking to downsize to a one-story home waiting for them in Everett.
Baker’s consulting company, PANA Associates, is named for his two daughters, Pam and Dana.
Grandson and namesake Dan Smith, 29, of Everett, recalled bragging to his friends about his grandfather as a child.
“He sets a good example for the family with a strong work ethic. He’s competitive, so whatever it is, he wants to do it well … and learn everything he can about it,” Smith said. “He sets a good tone for the family.”
While his memory isn’t what it used to be, Baker still shows the sharpness that landed him a score of 173 on an IQ test for Mensa in 1995.
His previous writing projects have included presentations on quality control and inch-thick manuals on quality assurance and the structural characteristics of printed circuit boards.
Now, he hopes to write a book about how to help students make the leap from trigonometric functions to the abstract thinking required in calculus.
Baker takes pride in the knowledge he has, but he also values virtues such as trust and approachability.
“Some people get so scientific and technical, they forget to relate to people,” he said.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
