Former NAEA President David Weston Baker Remembered

Former NAEA President David Weston Baker passed away peacefully on January 2, 2023. David served as President of NAEA from 1989 to 1991, and was also an editor for SchoolArts magazine for many years. During his career, David was a beloved art educator in Estherville, IA, and Golden Valley, MN. He also worked in extension services at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and Madison, served as the director of unified arts in Brookline, MA, and headed the art education departments at Louisiana State University; Teachers College, Columbia University; and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He held degrees in art education from the University of Northern Iowa, the University of Minnesota, and The Pennsylvania State University, where he also received his PhD. Late in his career, David was also a professor emeritus at Concordia University in Mequon, WI, where he taught classes in the art education graduate program.

Other noteworthy accomplishments in David’s life included serving in the Iowa National Guard and designing and making stained-glass windows based on the creation story in Genesis for St. John’s Catholic Church in Ogden, IA. He also collected historic art education manuals, books, and materials relating to the teaching of art, which he gifted to Concordia University. The extensive collection is now housed in Special Collections at the Concordia University library.

In his personal life, David was a devoted husband to his wife Madonna for 64 years, and a loving, supportive father to his children. David touched the lives of many people, and he will be dearly missed by friends, former students, and most of all, by his family. David is survived by his children Maureen (Richard Ciganek), Mark (Diane Poppish) Baker, and Carl Baker, and by his grandchildren Daniel Ciganek, Sydney Baker, and Weston Baker.