Former Cal Poly President Warren J Baker dies at 84

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif.– Cal Poly President Emeritus Warren J. Baker died at the age of 84 on Friday after leading the university for three decades.

Named Cal Poly president in 1979, Baker had the second-longest term in Cal Poly history serving for more than 31 years.

In his time at Cal Poly, Baker increased student enrollment and funded one billion dollars for campus infrastructure to support the growing student population.

These new facilities included the first new student housing in a generation, as well as a project that enhanced the stadium for Cal Poly’s Division attracting the attention of then-San Diego Chargers owner and Cal Poly alum Alex Spanos.

The focus on student success and providing accommodating support services launched Cal Poly onto the U.S. News & World Report ranking list as the best public-master’s university in the west for the first time in 1993.

The university has appeared on the list for the 30th consecutive year since.

Baker also led a partnership between Cal Poly and the city of San Luis Obispo in the '90s to create a performing arts center that became a community staple for world renowned theater and music.

Warren J. Baker's legacy carries on in the architecture of the campus he worked to build having the the Warren J. Baker Center for Science and Mathematics building named after him.

Baker's family asks any donation towards his legacy be donated to the Foundation for the Performing Arts Center here.