101-year-old veteran promotes literacy by writing children’s books – The Arizona Republic

Sam Baker, a 101-year-old veteran, is proving that age is just a number. As a children’s storybook author with three published books, he uses his vast experience to try and help kids learn to read while learning good values.

Baker served for five and half years in the U.S. Marines during World War II before spending 30 years as a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He now lives at Vi at Silverstone, a retirement home in Scottsdale, and uses his passion for storytelling to write humorous and educational children’s books.

Baker doesn’t think the U.S. is where it should be when it comes to reading comprehension. He is convinced he can make a positive change in that regard, no matter how big or small.

“If you look at the (reading) scores of American children compared to foreign children, as a whole, we are behind the world,” Baker said. “Reading is the foundation for all learning, so I have dedicated these books to getting children to learn to read. If ten of them learn to read after all the money I’ve spent, it’s well worth it.”

He thinks technology has impacted these scores because of how the internet makes information and images so readily available. His goal with his books is to help kids learn to imagine in a world where things are so often presented for you.

“How can you imagine something if you don’t have an imagination?” Baker said. “In these books, you have to imagine a worm big enough to talk, with arms and legs, and you have to imagine a mouse that can talk. If you interest little children enough, they’ll want to learn to read.”

Baker gets his inspiration for his characters and stories from events from his life.

His book “Oscar Goes to the Vet” is based off a full-circle experience he had while living in his retirement home. In the book, Oscar the mouse, who was based on a childhood rat Baker kept outside, goes to the vet to treat a tummy ache. The veterinarian in the book is based off of Dr. Don Casey, a fellow Marine stationed in Okinawa, Japan in 1945, the same place Baker was at the time.

They realized many years later when they met at Silverstone that they were stationed very close to each other. He learned Casey had become a veterinarian after his service, prompting Baker to dedicate the book to him. A large theme of all of his books is to be kind and to value friendship and companionship.

“I try to make my books emphasize love because we don’t need hate,” Baker said.

This is a lesson that he learned during his time as a lieutenant in the Marines, and he said his emphasis on friendship has helped him in longevity.

“I always relate it back to when a (fellow) Marine lieutenant told me, ‘Sam, take care of your men when you can, and when you can’t, they’ll take care of you,'” Baker said. “And that was my creed for all my life of management. If you apply that all the way up, it makes sense, you can’t do it all (alone).”

Baker also has always emphasized education in his career. A big example of this was when he was an executive officer of a 400-man battalion in China during World War II. After the atomic bomb brought the war’s end, he had to figure what to do with his soldiers. He created a school to educate them.

“I had a lot of young officers who had just arrived, so I started a school because we were in a schoolhouse,” Baker said. “We taught math, English, civics and history, and we didn’t have books, so we had to do it all from memory, and we gave diplomas every time the (officers) finished a semester.”

His emphasis on education proved to be a big influence on the people he worked with, as Baker said that by the time he retired, 45% of his professionals had earned advanced degrees. He thinks this emphasis on learning he carried with him may have led him to help kids learn with his books.

Baker has now started to read his books to children at schools. He recently received a thank you drawing from a group of students that he read to, which he said deeply touched his heart.

“When you get this (drawing), you know every child worked on it, it’s really something,” Baker said. “They’re so good when you go to talk to them. They are very attentive; they ask nice questions.”

Baker is looking to continue his writing career and hopes to extend it beyond children’s stories. He is currently working on a book for senior high school students. His books can be bought on his website or delivered through Amazon.

“When you get to my age, you can either sit around and do nothing, or you can be active,” Baker said. “I’ve tried to be active.”