Erwin Baker, 86; Times Reporter Covered City Hall for Many Years

Erwin Baker, a veteran City Hall reporter for the Los Angeles Times whose career spanned nearly five decades and saw vast changes in city government, has died. He was 86.

Baker died Saturday in a care facility in Kansas City, Kan., said his daughter, Jesica Baker of Los Angeles. The cause of death was congestive heart failure. Baker also suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.

Known for his dogged, meticulous reporting, Baker covered city government for The Times from the early 1960s until his retirement in 1983. That period saw the election of the city’s first black mayor, Tom Bradley.

“He covered a very controversial era in a very honest, straightforward way ... not in fancy writing ... but in a traditional kind of journalism, absolute high on integrity and facts,” said former Times City Editor Bill Boyarsky, who took over Baker’s title of City Hall bureau chief when The Times expanded the office from Baker alone to several reporters in the late 1970s.

Unlike some journalists who might have resented the intrusion onto his turf, Boyarsky said, Baker was “extremely generous” and became “a real inspiration” to his young colleagues.

“He wasn’t famous,” Boyarsky said, “but he was just one of those people who was the heart and soul of the newspaper business.”

Born Sept. 29, 1918, in Los Angeles, Baker had wanted to be a reporter before he was 10, his daughter said. He edited the Roosevelt High School newspaper and, while at UCLA, was a sports writer for the Daily Bruin.

Baker became the UCLA correspondent for the now-defunct Los Angeles Examiner during his senior year. After graduation, he became an Examiner reporter.

Baker enlisted in the Navy after World War II began. Earning his commission in 1942, he served as public relations officer under Adm. Chester Nimitz in the Pacific theater and witnessed Japan’s surrender aboard the battleship Missouri. He spent 25 years in the Naval Reserve, retiring with the rank of captain.

After the war he returned to the Examiner as a reporter, eventually rising to assistant city editor.

When Hearst Co. merged the Examiner with the Herald Express in 1962, Baker moved to The Times, where he reported from City Hall and contributed a regular column on city politics.

After his retirement from The Times, Baker worked for seven years in the public relations office of the Los Angeles Unified School District. He also spent three years as executive producer of a cable television news program for then-City Councilman Ernani Bernardi.

In addition to his daughter, the widowed Baker is survived by another daughter, Cherise Baker Whited of Lenexa, Kan.; his longtime companion, Peggy Gibson; and one granddaughter.

Services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary, 6001 Centinela Ave., Los Angeles.

The family has asked that, instead of flowers, memorial donations be made to the UCLA Foundation for the Erwin R. Baker Scholarship Fund No. 306310, to the attention of Stephen Jennings, 1309 Murphy Hall, Box 951413, Los Angeles, CA 90095.