He was born on March 27, 1840, the eldest in the family of George Ellis and Eveline (Stevens) Baker. His father, not successful as a business man, became a town clerk, legislator, and editor, and served as secretary to William H. Seward and Governor Clark of New York.
He was educated at home and at various private schools, notably Seward Institute in Florida, New York.
Harvard awarded him with a honarary doctorate.
In 1856 he became clerk in the state banking department at Albany at a salary of $500 a year. By 1860 he was numbering bank notes for $700 a year. While in Albany he became the best informed clerk in his department and, moreover, his abilities were being observed by bankers who had occasion to visit the department. In 1863 he was invited to help found the First National Bank of New York which was to become the most prominent, though not the largest, bank under the new national banking system. The immediate purpose of the new system was to help sell the bonds of the national government to finance the defeat of the Confederacy, and in this sale the youthful Baker played an active and zealous part. He himself bought and paid for thirty shares out of 2, 000. He became teller, bookkeeper, and director of the bank and was often called to Washington in consultation with Secretary Chase. In 1865 he became assistant cashier and then cashier. By 1869 he was worth $100, 000. The panic of 1873 hit all banks including the First National. The president wished to liquidate, but Baker, who then held 652 shares, opposed this action. He helped to calm the storm and developed his cardinal policy: in times of distress, loan to good customers, don't hoard. He helped to calm the storm and developed his cardinal policy: in times of distress, loan to good customers, don't hoard. In 1877 he became the second president of the bank. His declared policy was to be "just and fair and liberal. " His chief course during this period was to continue the bank as a banker's bank and to develop its connections with great business corporations.
He gradually built up a surplus which was to become one of the outstanding features of its capital structure. With few customers and only one merger, the bank remained relatively small but very profitable. In 1908 Baker set up the First Security Company (dissolved 1933), which was apparently the second security affiliate of the kind in America. It was established to conform with the federal law prohibiting a national bank from doing certain things. Its main purpose was to "buy and sell stocks, bonds, and notes. " In 1909 Baker became chairman of the board of his bank, an office which he held until his death. During the period 1908-31 the bank was an integral part of financial capitalism or, as it was loosely called, Wall Street. The security affiliate, the close association with investment bankers, particularly J. P. Morgan & Company, and the interlocking of directorates threatened to overshadow the commercial bank. In the Pujo Committee inquiry of 1912-13 Baker was called upon for evidence as to his operations and policies.
Baker had bought his way into the Chase National Bank with the idea of merging it with his own institution. He changed his mind and sold his shares because he concluded that each bank was large enough and because he feared that Chase would not profit from foreign banking. He was a director of many corporations (eighty-seven at one time: railroads, manufacturing concerns, public utilities, and banks), and up to the extent of his physical strength, which was great, he faithfully attended directors' meetings. Obviously, he believed in big corporations that performed efficiently the services required. His cardinal aim as a commercial banker was to take care of these concerns when they needed his help, at a fair price for the credit extended.
His fortune was estimated at its height as $200, 000, 000 but at his death at about $73, 500, 000. After 1912 he was very liberal, his gifts amounting to over $19, 400, 000. The chief of these was a gift of $6, 000, 000 to Harvard, given to found and endow the Graduate School of Business Administration. Colleges, museums, libraries, hospitals, and churches were the chief recipients. Baker died of pneumonia in his ninety-second year.
Baker provided much of the initial funding for Harvard Business School with a 1924 grant of $5 million, for which Harvard gave him an honorary doctorate and named the library after him. He made other large donations to charitable causes throughout New York City and funded the construction of Baker Field, Columbia University's primary athletic facility. He provided $2 million for Baker Memorial Library at Dartmouth College.
He wasted no time over politics; his conception of social service was to be a good banker.
He was popularly thought of as the strong silent man of Wall Street from whom anything might be expected. Nearly six feet tall, Baker was a handsome young man and a striking figure in old age. In his youth he became a good oarsman. His love of horses gave way to a love of dogs. He was gentle and easily moved to tears, and although he was amazingly thoughtful of others, particularly his friends, he was a stern employer.
He was married on November 18, 1869, to Florence Tucker Baker of Louisville, who died in 1913. They had five children, three of whom, Evelyn, Florence, and George Fisher, Jr. , survived him.
