Howard Baker began his road to political success in Huntsville, Tennessee. He attended The McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and then matriculated to Tulane University in New Orleans. After serving in the US Navy during World War II, he returned to school, graduating from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1949.
Baker’s political career began in the late 1960s and continued in earnest through the 1980s. In the 1966 Senate election, Baker became the first Republican elected from Tennessee since Reconstruction. He served as a Tennessee senator from 1967 until 1985. During that time, he was twice Senate Minority Leader and twice Senate Majority Leader. Baker was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984, served as Chief of Staff under President Ronald Reagan in 1987-88, and was a former US Ambassador to Japan.
During his celebrated political career, Baker did not lose touch with his home state, and he remained committed to the University of Tennessee. The rotunda at the College of Law now is named in Baker’s honor. Additionally, the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy was established in 2001. The center is a nonpartisan organization that emphasizes better understanding of government and better appreciation of the importance of public service. The center develops programs and promotes research to further the public’s knowledge of our system of governance, and to highlight the critical importance of public service, a hallmark of Senator Baker’s career.
To continue the growth and development of the Baker Center and its impact, in 2005 the University of Tennessee broke ground on a new facility to house the program. Completed in late 2008, the 53,000-square-foot building provides space for educational programs, exhibits, public lectures, collections, research and administrative uses.
