Edward Baker
Edward (Ted) Baker was born in Long Beach, California, and completed his high
school education at Long Beach Polytechnic, where he was the school cartoonist and
photographer for its newspaper and literary publications. Baker received his BA from the
University of California, Los Angeles in 1956. He served in the United States Navy from
1956-1958 as a seaman. After leaving the Navy, he taught as an art teacher at Los
Angeles High School. Baker entered the MFA program at Claremont Graduate University
in 1962, and began teaching art classes at Scripps College in 1965.
In 1966, he became a full-time instructor at Scripps and a staff associate at CGU,
teaching courses in K-12 arts education through 1971. In the fall of 1968, Baker was
hired as a full-time faculty member at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California.
He was the Dean of Fine Arts from 1979 through 1999, when he retired. During the
1970s and 80s, Baker taught art history on tour throughout western and eastern Europe,
granting under-division college units through the auspices of Orange Coast College. In
addition to being a studio artist and teacher, Baker is a student of the clarinet and has
performed with the OCC Wind Ensemble since his retirement.
Baker has consistently exhibited his paintings across the nation throughout the
1960’s and 70’s and in the current decade, including a mural for the Los Angeles Zoo.
Before and after his retirement from Orange Coast Community, Baker served on the
Cultural Arts Council for the City of Costa Mesa and co-chaired the annual event
sponsored by the City and the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce, “Arts on the Green,” a
celebration of the visual and performing arts of Orange County. He has juried
innumerable art shows throughout Southern California, and recently painted a “Musical
Theme Chair” as a silent auction item for the Orange County Performing Arts Society.
For the past ten years, Baker has been an executive board member of Rhapsody in Tap, a
nationally recognized, non-profit professional dance company.
Baker is married to Marsha Rebney, and they have three children and six
grandchildren. During their travels, Baker takes city and landscape photographs, which
he uses in his studio as references for paintings. His next exhibition will be in 2011 at the
Coastline Gallery in Huntington Beach, California.