Goodbye to a Great Man. Bill Baker

[pronghorn23]

God bless! Prayers and thoughts to his family and friends.

He's in a better place now, where the seasons never end.

[Dsturgisjr]

Bill congratulates Dale Karch on his Buff.

 

This one got a little close! Bill talked him down. LOL

[Dsturgisjr]

Bill is carrying a rifle in these pics, but he only wanted to make sure that no one got injured. He was pure, hard-core bowhunter.

 

 

 

[Ian johnson]

my prayers go out to him and his family

[Mark U]

I'd been hoping all summer that Bill would pull through this, but the news got worse instead of better, and the day I have dreaded finally came.

  A year ago Tuesday we were giving hugs all around as we left for the airport in Townsville after a three week "mate hunt" as Bill called it.  At that time, if someone were to say one of us would be dead in a year, Bill would have been the last one out of the six of us that I would have picked.  But here it is, a year later, and Bill is gone.  

  I have a few everyday pictures of Bill on my camera.

Start of an unbelievable buff hunt.
 

Bill at the buff camp kitchen.

 

One of the lizards on the road.

 

Doug Chase and Bill out front of Bill's place.

 

Getting ready for the Northeast Cape hunt at Bill's place.

 

STILL getting ready for the Northeast Cape hunt.  The bar owner mowed a path across a field from here to Bill's house to facilitate getting home.

 

Rik with a catfish at the bilabong while Bill is croc bait.  

 

Bill had a brown bear hunt booked in Alaska for this coming October, one of his life long dreams.    He came up a year short.  We also had other stuff planned down the road here in Idaho and over in Oz.

Life is too short sometimes.

[gordonf]

Wish I could have met Bill. Seems like he left quite an impression on all that knew him. It's sad to see good ones like him go. My prayers to his family.

[Joseph]

I only got to spend 2 weeks with Bill and his wife Linda at Toomba station.  As short as it was I am a better person and hunter for it.  Being an RN for the last 9 years I have seen many people suffer and have a lingering death from many different diseases.  As painful as it is I am glad he went quick and what little I knew of Bill I am sure that he made the most of the time he had left with his family.  I feel bad for them :^(  I lost my father when I was 16 and that is a void that is still painful at times.  Joseph

[Glenn Newell]

Bill will be missed by many. He was a great bloke who could get on with anybody and he was intrested in everybody. Extremely likeable and he had a disarming boyish smile, you couldn't help but laugh when Bill was telling one of his hunting storys (usually about one that went wrong) over a few beers at the end of the day back at camp, he would always grin and roll his eyes telling his horror hunting storys. And those jokes, what can you say. I did eventually wake up to not take any of Bills short cuts back to camp. I remember sitting on the basalt one night almost being carried away by mosquitos waiting for the moon to come up so we could find that short cut again. You will be badly missed Ol'Mate and I hope you are there to guide me again when I follow in your footsteps to the other side...Glenn...

[Rich LaBombard]

thanks for those photos.

[Dsturgisjr]

Bill's funeral is today. Send a prayer up for Bill's wife and son today.

Dale and I had so much fun with Bill last year, we made plans to return this year. We both got to visit with Bill, but he was too sick to hunt. I'm glad I got to see him again.

One of my buddies that went down under with me this year called today after I emailed him the news about Bill. He said, "We all are going to miss Bill, but he gets to hunt everyday now."


I got to hunt with three of Bill's best mates this year. Grahm Cash (Cashy) took care of us at Toomba. Toomba is Bill's little honey hole full of free ranging feral hogs and chital deer. 175 square miles of bowhunting paradise. Cashy is the editor of BOWHUNTING DOWNUNDER magazine.

On Meville Island, Brad Kane and Dan Smith took care of us while we hunted buffalo. They kept Bill up to date with a satellite phone.

These three gentlemen were awesome and thought the world of Bill. I'm glad I have three new friends to help with the loss. I'm sure we will be hunting together again.

Save some game for us up there Bill.

[Dsturgisjr]

Brad Smith

 

Grahm Cash (Cashy)

 

Brad Kane and Don Thomas. Don was very close to Bill.

[Dale Karch]

When hunting in Australia last year, Bill and Linda Baker treated Denny and I just like family. We laughted together and shared a few camp fires telling stories about past hunts, and what hunts we had to look forward to. Bill might be gone, but his kind words and great sense of humor will live forever in my memories. I will morn his loss but will smile everytime I look at his picture remembering the times we hunted together.
As Billy would say "pull her all the way back Dale, he's a big one." The archery community has lost another great man!  My thoughts and prayers go out to Linda and family.

[Terry Green]

Sad to hear.  Thanks for sharing the pics and words about Bill.  Now I feel as though I knew him.

Obviously he also provided a lot of great memories for a lot of folks.  Great path he chose.

Prays sent.

[Mark U]

In 2005, Bill and Brad came out to Idaho to hunt elk.  We had discussed where to take them, and they ended up hunting the west side of the state, and I had a zone tag on the east side, so I missed this hunt.  I did keep up on what was happening, and of course the Yankee group portrayed the usual typical elk hunt, with varying weather, spots of elk, slow bugling, etc.  Bill's story was a little different.  I'm trying to remember how he put it, but it was something like this.  "We fly half way around the world, the blokes load our gear on small camels and make us hike up and down the steepest mountains they can find, feed us gruel and warm beer, we have sunshine, rain and snow and they kill every elk in the area right under our noses.  Then we walk out and they send us packing home.  But hey, what are mates for!!"

We laughed about that for a long time.

These pictures are from Brad's camera.
Doug Chase, Brad, Bill, Bruce Drewes.

 

 

Rik, Doug, Bruce, Bill and Brad
 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mark U]

And some more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's our typical Idaho elk hunt.  When we were hunting in Oz last year, Brad took me and Doug on a marathon hike from the middle of Melville to the salt flats on the coast and back.  While we were heading back to camp, I looked at Brad and asked if this was some kind of payback for an elk hunt I wasn't even in on.  He smiled and said "Fifteen more days!"

[Dsturgisjr]

Mark, Thanks for sharing those pictures. I've heard the tales of that hunt from Bill and Brad. Great stuff.

[Dr. Ed Ashby]

It's a very personal loss to me, and a big loss for all those who never had the chance to meet Bill. He was among the good ones. I'll miss him.

Ed

[ckruse]

Thanks to all who shared their pictures and memories. Meeting Bill and hunting Melville Is. was on my (hope) to do list. God Bless, CKruse

[George Tsoukalas]

My sympathies to family and friends. Jawge

[Donavan Daniel]

Sad news indeed. Prayers sent.

Donavan