Led National Cancer Institute To Preeminence in Research

Carl G. Baker, 88, who was director of the National Cancer Institute during the United States' "war on cancer" in the early 1970s, died Feb. 11 at Casey House hospice in Rockville. He had myelodysplastic syndrome, a bone marrow disorder.

Dr. Baker spent most of his career at the cancer institute in Bethesda, the largest branch of the National Institutes of Health. He was director of the cancer institute in 1971, when President Richard M. Nixon signed the National Cancer Act, which added $100 million to the institute's budget and was seen as a declaration of "war on cancer."

During Dr. Baker's three years at the helm of the cancer institute, its annual operating budget jumped from $181 million to $378 million.

He solidified the institute's standing as the country's premier center for cancer study by increasing research efforts in leukemia and cancers of the bowel, prostate and bladder and by expanding chemotherapy programs. He was also part of a U.S. delegation that reached cooperative health agreements with the former Soviet Union.

Carl Gwin Baker was born Nov. 27, 1920, in Louisville. He graduated from the University of Louisville and entered its medical school. In 1942, he joined the Navy. After graduating from medical school in 1944, he served as a physician during World War II aboard ships, in hospitals and at naval air bases. In 1949, he received a master's degree in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley.

During his 23 years with NIH, Dr. Baker was a commissioned officer of the U.S. Public Health Service, reaching the rank of rear admiral. He began his career in 1949 as a biochemistry researcher studying cholesterol and amino acids. But he developed asthma as a result of an acute sensitivity to animal dander and, after two years, had to turn to administrative work.

He was a grants administrator and NIH research official before becoming an assistant director at the cancer institute in 1958. He worked in most of the institute's programs before becoming director of etiology, the study of the causes of disease, in 1967. Dr. Baker became the cancer institute's acting director in 1969 and was appointed director a year later.

After resigning from the cancer institute in 1972, Dr. Baker was named president of Hazelton Laboratories, a Vienna biotechnology research company. His office was downwind from the firm's animal laboratories, however, causing his allergies to flare up. He then became a senior official with the Health Resources Administration, an agency of the former Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

In 1976, Dr. Baker moved to Zurich as the first medical director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, an international medical group. He retired in 1982 but continued to serve on advisory panels and as a consultant to the institute for several years.

After settling in Olney, he taught organizational behavior at Columbia Union College in Takoma Park and science courses for nonscience majors at the University of Maryland. He lectured frequently on cancer and wrote more than 50 scientific articles.

Dr. Baker received the Public Health Service's Meritorious Service Medal and was on the editorial boards of two cancer journals. He was a director of the American Association for Cancer Research, director-at-large of the American Cancer Society and a secretary of the American Chemical Society's Division of Biological Chemistry.

He was a member of the Cosmos Club and was an honorary Kentucky colonel.

His marriage to Lois Oxsen Baker ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of 34 years, Catherine Smith Baker of Olney; two daughters from his first marriage, Cathryn Schafer of Fawn Grove, Pa., and Jeannette Jefferies of Woodbine, Md.; a stepson from his first marriage, David Moquin of Ocean Pines, Md.; three stepchildren from his second marriage, Robert Kibler of Burlington, N.D., Bruce Kibler of Superior, Wis., and Kathleen K. Mahoney of North Potomac; 12 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.