Memorial Statement for Professor James Andrew Baker, M.S., D.V.M., Ph.D. (1910-1975) who was Professor (1947) of Bacteriology at the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine. Coming back to Cornell from the Rockefeller Institute at Princeton, New Jersey, Dr. Baker founded and served as the Director of the Veterinary Virus Research Institute (VVRI) and the Cornell Research Laboratory for Diseases of Dogs. This facility was re-named the James A. Baker Institute for Animal Health in his honor at his death in 1975. For over 25 years, under Dr. Baker's guidance and with the support of many donors, the VVRI grew into "a modern and well-equipped laboratory complex dedicated to solving disease problems arising from the field as well as to basic biomedical research." Focused primarily on the canine and bovine species, "many of the advances in veterinary virology had their origins in the VVRI." The memorial statements contained herein were prepared by the Office of the Dean of the University Faculty of Cornell University to honor its faculty for their service to the university.