Baker, a 77-year-old Vietnam veteran, died this month from blood
disorders caused,  friends suspect, by wartime exposure to Agent Orange.

His legacy of quiet good deeds — from mowing lawns for ailing neighbors to funding schools, orphanages and housing in Vietnam–made a lasting impression on a diverse universe of admirers.

Congressmen, cops, bikers, lawyers … they all frequented The Postmark, the Washington Street coin- and stamp shop where Baker shared Vietnamese tea and conversation for more than four decades.

“I think Dave Baker made us all better people. We need more Dave Bakers in the world,” said Morris County Sheriff James Gannon.

Marc Marowitz, owner of the former Morristown Deli, helped Baker collect medical supplies from area hospitals to bring to Vietnam. Gauze, antiseptics, stethoscopes…one year, there were 10 trailer loads, he said.

Dave Baker at 2013 opening of daycare center in Phuoc Dong Province, Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Jimmie Hilliard.

“He didn’t want recognition,” Marowitz said. “He did it from his heart…he was an unsung hero.”

“Each trip, he would find the poorest villager…and he would build that guy a house, from soup to nuts,” said Ed O’Rourke, a retired Dover police detective who twice accompanied Baker to Vietnam.

“You could see it was a very moving experience for him to go over every time,” O’Rourke said. “He just felt he had to give back.”

Baker, a Morristown High School graduate, went to Vietnam in 1967 and was there for the Tet Offensive in ’68. As a dog handler with the Army’s 529th Military Police Company, he performed reconnaissance patrols with his German shepherd, Cornell.

Trained for ferocity, military dogs saved American lives…by visiting savage fury upon the Viet Cong. Baker had to keep Cornell caged when they were off-duty.

After Baker’s tour, Cornell was euthanized. These fearless animals could not be socialized, Baker once explained to this reporter–after refusing to discuss his exploits for publication.

Baker wore a tattoo bearing Cornell’s likeness. And he gave that name to his pet dogs, noted John Mills III, a fellow Harley aficionado.

Mills often accompanied Baker on Sunday group rides to a Vietnamese restaurant near Little Italy in New York. A “run for chicken soup,” Baker called these scrambles.

Baker threw himself into many interests. He was appointed as a special police officer in the Township, where he grew up. An expert on guns, he held a dealer’s license. He collected artifacts of the Lenni-Lenape tribe. Handy with engines, he babied a 1932 Ford Roadster.

Dave Baker on his Harley with a pet German shepherd he named for his Vietnam War military dog, Cornell. Photo courtesy of Jimmie Hilliard.

“You could turn to Dave for advice on almost any subject and it would be well-founded advice when given. And that man would give you the shirt off his back. Literally,” said Mills, former municipal attorney for Morris Township.

Generosity seemed to come naturally.

“He helped a lot of people. If I needed $500, he would reach in and give me $500,” said Jimmie Hilliard, a retired parking attendant who helped Baker at The Postmark.

They bonded when Hilliard was a Scoutmaster decades earlier. Scouts earned merit badges for coin collecting in those days.

Talk inside The Postmark wasn’t limited to numismatics and philately.

“If you wanted to know what was going on in Morristown, you went in and asked Dave,” said Linda Coutts Snyder, whose family owns the building. “He was bigger than life. Everybody loved him.”

Hilliard, a Democrat, loved verbal jousting with his pal, a Republican with a soft spot for the late tough-guy actor John Wayne. “All the Vietnam guys loved the Duke,” Hilliard said with amusement.

Jimmie Hilliard at The Postmark, where he helped Dave Baker for years. ‘It was a rough couple of days’ coming to grips with Baker’s passing, Hilliard said. He’s pictured here on July 28, 2021, closing down the shop. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

State Assemblywoman Aura Dunn (R-25th Dist.) came to know Baker when she worked around the corner for then-Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen.