CHEF is "Cape Proud" of Jim Baker

Since beginning my “Cape Proud” series that highlights successful Cape Alumni, I have been amazed at the number of connections that exist among my “Cape Heroes”.  Jim Baker—this week’s distinguished Cape grad--drove Emily Walls (last week’s profile) to school every day. Jim recalls there being very few homes in Milton at the time and Emily was one of his few neighbors.

Jim Baker moved to the Cape region as a first grader when he and his family relocated to Milton, Delaware.  He continued on to Milton Middle and then graduated from Cape High School in 1996. At Cape he played soccer, baseball and lacrosse.  As an “Academic  Challenge” student, he received enough college credits in high school to enter Villanova University armed with 16 college credits.

Jim met his wife Eileen at Villanova and they now reside in Lewes, DE and have two children who attend Shields Elementary School.

During Jim’s senior year of college, he accepted a position as a civil engineer at MacIntosh Engineering.  In 2006, Jim’s company relocated him from his Wilmington office to Georgetown, DE where he opened a satellite office.  Jim is currently a principal at MacIntosh  and he has subsequently moved the office to Lewes

Jim’s ties to the Cape District did not end when he graduated.  He has been the structural engineer on both the Beacon Middle and the Mariner Middle school projects and he is the structural engineer for the new soon to be built elementary school.

In addition, Jim is very involved with the Odyssey of the Mind program at Shields Elementary.  Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. They then bring their solutions to competition on the local, state, and international level.  Last year, the Shields Odyssey of the Mind team went to Worlds under Jim’s direction.

When I asked Jim about his experience as a student at Cape, he recalls that all of the teachers at Cape provided “fantastic opportunities to help students excel”.  Jim includes the Math Team, the Science Olympiad and Academic Challenge as exciting activities  . He recalled an excellent Chemistry class taught by Bill Geppert, who is still teaching at Cape High .  Jim also appreciated Physics teacher John Hilton.

Jim Baker is thrilled to be a part of the Cape community and he especially loves when he finds qualified civil engineers who hail from our area to join the MacIntosh team.  Because Jim has enjoyed such professional success and has remained supportive of CHSD in many ways, we couldn’t be more “Cape proud” of him.

Please visit our new Cape Henlopen Educational Foundation (CHEF) website at www.chef-cape.org to learn more about CHEF's educational partnership with the Cape school district. We invite the entire Cape community to help us achieve our mission of preparing students for a healthy, productive life in a diverse and global society. We hope you can join us at “Rehoboth in White” on September 26^th: an elegant evening at an exciting mystery location. More info on our website.