Native Altoonan, Once Missionary To China, Dies
Rev. Father Oswald Baker, O. S. B. a native of Altoona who became a Benedictine, went to China as a missionary and was interned by the Japanese during World War II, died in Hempstead, L. I. hospital at 12:15 o'clock yesterday morning.
Father Baker suffered a heart attack at 9:30 o'clock Wednesday night while visiting Rev. Father Joseph, O. S. B. at St. Kilan's rectory, Long Island, and was removed to the hospital.
A requiem mass was to be sung this morning at St. Kilan's church and the body was to be removed to St. Leo's abbey in Florida, where Father Baker had been stationed several years on the faculty of theology.
Father Baker was born in Altoona Dec. 6, 1898, a son of Louis and Annie (McNelis) Baker. He attended St. John's school, now Cathedral school, as John Baker and St. Vincent's college, Lairabe, where he entered the Benedictine order.
Ordained at St. Vincent's June 10, 1927, Father Baker went to China a year later with a pioneer group of members of the Benedictine order to found the Catholic university at Peking.
He had helped found a monastery at Kaifung in Hunan province when Pearl Harbor was attacked Dec 7, 1941. At almost the exact time of the attack, he was captured by the Japanese army and imprisoned in a concentration camp.
Father Baker was liberated by American paratroopers in 1945. Among his liberators was Capt. Raymond C. McCulloch of Altoona.
Father Baker was to have returned on the Gripsholm to the United States, but gave his place to the wife of a Methodist minister that she might return first.
When he did return to the states he was broken in health because of his long incarceration and spent a year in a Chicago hospital before going to St. Leo's abbey in 1949. He was a professor of dogma and instructor of world history in the college preparatory school there.
For the past year Father Baker had been a patient at the Pittsburgh hospital which is conducted by the Sisters of Charity.
Surviving are one sister, Sister Mary Aimee of the Visitation convent, Frederick, Ms.; three aunts in religion, including Sister Mary Martina and Sister Mary Dolores of the Benedictine Nuns, Elizabeth, N. J., and Sister Veincent de Paul of the Sisters of Charity, Tucson, Ariz.; an aunt and uncle residing in Altoona, Mrs. Bridget Rigel and Anthony McNelis, three nephews and three nieces.
(Altoona Mirror (PA) 1954-09-17, p.: 19)
Note: Fr. Baker's obituary provides a birth date of Dec. 6, 1898.
Rev. Father Oswald Baker, O. S. B. a native of Altoona who became a Benedictine, went to China as a missionary and was interned by the Japanese during World War II, died in Hempstead, L. I. hospital at 12:15 o'clock yesterday morning.
Father Baker suffered a heart attack at 9:30 o'clock Wednesday night while visiting Rev. Father Joseph, O. S. B. at St. Kilan's rectory, Long Island, and was removed to the hospital.
A requiem mass was to be sung this morning at St. Kilan's church and the body was to be removed to St. Leo's abbey in Florida, where Father Baker had been stationed several years on the faculty of theology.
Father Baker was born in Altoona Dec. 6, 1898, a son of Louis and Annie (McNelis) Baker. He attended St. John's school, now Cathedral school, as John Baker and St. Vincent's college, Lairabe, where he entered the Benedictine order.
Ordained at St. Vincent's June 10, 1927, Father Baker went to China a year later with a pioneer group of members of the Benedictine order to found the Catholic university at Peking.
He had helped found a monastery at Kaifung in Hunan province when Pearl Harbor was attacked Dec 7, 1941. At almost the exact time of the attack, he was captured by the Japanese army and imprisoned in a concentration camp.
Father Baker was liberated by American paratroopers in 1945. Among his liberators was Capt. Raymond C. McCulloch of Altoona.
Father Baker was to have returned on the Gripsholm to the United States, but gave his place to the wife of a Methodist minister that she might return first.
When he did return to the states he was broken in health because of his long incarceration and spent a year in a Chicago hospital before going to St. Leo's abbey in 1949. He was a professor of dogma and instructor of world history in the college preparatory school there.
For the past year Father Baker had been a patient at the Pittsburgh hospital which is conducted by the Sisters of Charity.
Surviving are one sister, Sister Mary Aimee of the Visitation convent, Frederick, Ms.; three aunts in religion, including Sister Mary Martina and Sister Mary Dolores of the Benedictine Nuns, Elizabeth, N. J., and Sister Veincent de Paul of the Sisters of Charity, Tucson, Ariz.; an aunt and uncle residing in Altoona, Mrs. Bridget Rigel and Anthony McNelis, three nephews and three nieces.
(Altoona Mirror (PA) 1954-09-17, p.: 19)
Note: Fr. Baker's obituary provides a birth date of Dec. 6, 1898.
Native Altoonan, Once Missionary To China, Dies
Rev. Father Oswald Baker, O. S. B. a native of Altoona who became a Benedictine, went to China as a missionary and was interned by the Japanese during World War II, died in Hempstead, L. I. hospital at 12:15 o'clock yesterday morning.
Father Baker suffered a heart attack at 9:30 o'clock Wednesday night while visiting Rev. Father Joseph, O. S. B. at St. Kilan's rectory, Long Island, and was removed to the hospital.
A requiem mass was to be sung this morning at St. Kilan's church and the body was to be removed to St. Leo's abbey in Florida, where Father Baker had been stationed several years on the faculty of theology.
Father Baker was born in Altoona Dec. 6, 1898, a son of Louis and Annie (McNelis) Baker. He attended St. John's school, now Cathedral school, as John Baker and St. Vincent's college, Lairabe, where he entered the Benedictine order.
Ordained at St. Vincent's June 10, 1927, Father Baker went to China a year later with a pioneer group of members of the Benedictine order to found the Catholic university at Peking.
He had helped found a monastery at Kaifung in Hunan province when Pearl Harbor was attacked Dec 7, 1941. At almost the exact time of the attack, he was captured by the Japanese army and imprisoned in a concentration camp.
Father Baker was liberated by American paratroopers in 1945. Among his liberators was Capt. Raymond C. McCulloch of Altoona.
Father Baker was to have returned on the Gripsholm to the United States, but gave his place to the wife of a Methodist minister that she might return first.
When he did return to the states he was broken in health because of his long incarceration and spent a year in a Chicago hospital before going to St. Leo's abbey in 1949. He was a professor of dogma and instructor of world history in the college preparatory school there.
For the past year Father Baker had been a patient at the Pittsburgh hospital which is conducted by the Sisters of Charity.
Surviving are one sister, Sister Mary Aimee of the Visitation convent, Frederick, Ms.; three aunts in religion, including Sister Mary Martina and Sister Mary Dolores of the Benedictine Nuns, Elizabeth, N. J., and Sister Veincent de Paul of the Sisters of Charity, Tucson, Ariz.; an aunt and uncle residing in Altoona, Mrs. Bridget Rigel and Anthony McNelis, three nephews and three nieces.
(Altoona Mirror (PA) 1954-09-17, p.: 19)
Note: Fr. Baker's obituary provides a birth date of Dec. 6, 1898.
Rev. Father Oswald Baker, O. S. B. a native of Altoona who became a Benedictine, went to China as a missionary and was interned by the Japanese during World War II, died in Hempstead, L. I. hospital at 12:15 o'clock yesterday morning.
Father Baker suffered a heart attack at 9:30 o'clock Wednesday night while visiting Rev. Father Joseph, O. S. B. at St. Kilan's rectory, Long Island, and was removed to the hospital.
A requiem mass was to be sung this morning at St. Kilan's church and the body was to be removed to St. Leo's abbey in Florida, where Father Baker had been stationed several years on the faculty of theology.
Father Baker was born in Altoona Dec. 6, 1898, a son of Louis and Annie (McNelis) Baker. He attended St. John's school, now Cathedral school, as John Baker and St. Vincent's college, Lairabe, where he entered the Benedictine order.
Ordained at St. Vincent's June 10, 1927, Father Baker went to China a year later with a pioneer group of members of the Benedictine order to found the Catholic university at Peking.
He had helped found a monastery at Kaifung in Hunan province when Pearl Harbor was attacked Dec 7, 1941. At almost the exact time of the attack, he was captured by the Japanese army and imprisoned in a concentration camp.
Father Baker was liberated by American paratroopers in 1945. Among his liberators was Capt. Raymond C. McCulloch of Altoona.
Father Baker was to have returned on the Gripsholm to the United States, but gave his place to the wife of a Methodist minister that she might return first.
When he did return to the states he was broken in health because of his long incarceration and spent a year in a Chicago hospital before going to St. Leo's abbey in 1949. He was a professor of dogma and instructor of world history in the college preparatory school there.
For the past year Father Baker had been a patient at the Pittsburgh hospital which is conducted by the Sisters of Charity.
Surviving are one sister, Sister Mary Aimee of the Visitation convent, Frederick, Ms.; three aunts in religion, including Sister Mary Martina and Sister Mary Dolores of the Benedictine Nuns, Elizabeth, N. J., and Sister Veincent de Paul of the Sisters of Charity, Tucson, Ariz.; an aunt and uncle residing in Altoona, Mrs. Bridget Rigel and Anthony McNelis, three nephews and three nieces.
(Altoona Mirror (PA) 1954-09-17, p.: 19)
Note: Fr. Baker's obituary provides a birth date of Dec. 6, 1898.
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