Moses Lake community services officer died Saturday

Family, friends remember Cal Baker

MOSES LAKE - Moses Lake Police Department Community Services Officer Calvin "Cal" Baker died Saturday morning due to a heart attack.

Family and friends remember him as kind, giving, caring and passionate about children.

"He was such a generous man," wife Cheryl said. "He'd give you the shirt off his back if you needed it."

Cal was passionate about helping people and had a goal to ensure that every child had a safety seat, she said.

He worked with the police department for approximately 10 years promoting child car seat programs, bike safety programs, crime prevention programs, animal control and managed the evidence room, Police Capt. Dave Ruffin said. He began as a reserve officer.

"This was a guy who would do anything you would ask of him," he said.

Ruffin said people sometimes say that about anyone but said it was true in Cal's case and he was very kind.

"It's a tremendous loss," he said. "He was a rare employee."

Cheryl recalls the day she met Cal.

Her computer crashed and he came over to fix it. Cal spent more than five hours repairing her computer and 10 days later he proposed marriage on Valentine's Day. They married the following month and were together for more than 15 years.

She said his sensitivity, caring attitude and the way he treated her children made her fall in love with him. They raised three children together.

"My kids just fell in love with him," Cheryl said. "We were soul mates. We talked constantly to each other. He was my other half. He was the love of my life."

Cal and Cheryl are from California but didn't meet until they each moved to Moses Lake, they were meant to be together, she says.

"He was the greatest dad in the world," daughter Cassandra Blackham said. "It's hard to put into words."

She said Cal influenced her decision to join the U.S. Navy.

Cal supported the military, Cheryl said. He was in the Marine Corps for approximately 15 years and was stationed in Japan twice.

Blackham said she is Cal's stepdaughter but was always treated like she was his biological daughter and she always thought of him as her biological father.

It was the small things Cal did for her that made him the greatest dad in the world, she said. He was attentive to things most people overlooked.

"He never missed out on anything I did," Blackham said.

Son Joshua Zimmer said he will always be proud to say Cal is his father.

"He was a good man," he said. "He was kind, caring, always patient when I wanted to work on a project."

Zimmer said Cal always helped him fix his bike or his computer and Zimmer got to help Cal with his ham radio projects.

The word that kept recurring while loved ones describing Cal was "kind."

Funeral services are Monday at 10 a.m. at the Moses Lake Alliance Church.