COLLETTE RAMSEY BAKER FOUNDER, DEAFNESS RESEARCH FOUNDATION
On May 9, 2010, Collette Ramsey Baker passed away at age 91, with her adoring husband and devoted companion of 22 years, Maurice Baker, constantly at her side. She was born in 1918 in Waverly, Tenn. In her young adulthood, she became a favorite model of the renowned painter, Howard Chandler Christy. She was also a successful amateur golfer, setting the women's record at her home club, Baltusrol, in New Jersey, winning its club championship for four consecutive years.
After living with a substantial hearing loss for many years, at age 35, Ramsey Baker's hearing was completely restored with an early fenestration operation. In gratitude, she founded the Deafness Research Foundation (DRF) 52 years ago, for which she became widely known and respected,
and was listed in Who's Who for Women. Under her leadership, DRF bestowed grants upon colleges and other research institutions for research and improvement of hearing. Since 1958, DRF has given over $25.5 million and over 2,000 grants to hearing and balance research. Ramsey Baker received letters of commendation from many leaders and well-known people including Presidents Herbert Hoover and Dwight D. Eisenhower, as well as Helen Keller and Cardinal Francis Spellman. In 1960, Ramsey Baker and the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery established the National Temporal Bone Banks Program to encourage individuals with ear disorders to pledge their temporal bones at death for scientific research. The program has grown into the National Temporal Bone Hearing and Balance Pathology Resource Registry, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
Ramsey Baker is survived by her husband, Maurice Baker, of Vero Beach, Fla., her brother, Charles Nicks, of Hayesville, N.C., her daughters, Collette Wynn of Washington Depot, Conn., and Janet Conrad, of West Chester, Pa., along with eight grandchildren and two greatgrandchildren. She was previously married to Hobart Cole Ramsey, and was blessed to have two such loving husbands in her life.
In lieu of flowers, please send contributions in her name to Deafness Research Foundation, 641 Lexington Avenue, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10022-4503, www.drf.org.
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