Baker, Ronald Harold COLONIE Ronald Harold Baker, age 79 of Colonie, passed away on September 4, 2020, at Albany Medical Center. Ron had been battling aggressive prostate cancer for many years and succumbed to multiple organ failure secondary to his cancer. He was born in Glens Falls on August 7, 1941, and was the son of Alma Trombley Chmielewski and Harold Vernon Baker. Ron graduated from Glens Falls High School and obtained both his bachelor's degree and master's degree in education from Plattsburgh State University. Since 1970, Ron was a resident of Colonie. He was a high school social studies teacher at Shaker High School where he was also a football and wrestling coach. In 1974, he began the start of a decade's long dedication to firefighting and emergency medical service by volunteering for the Colonie Fire Department. He was a pioneer in pre-hospital E.M.S. as he was part of the initial group of paramedics in the Albany area. His love and dedication to the fire service, E.M.S., and education made him a natural fit to leave teaching and become the E.M.S. coordinator for the City of Troy Fire Department. Ron integrated pre-hospital E.M.S. into the Troy Fire Department which was no easy task as having city fire departments provide emergency medical services was a novel idea at the time. When his hometown of Colonie required a change from volunteer emergency medical services, Ron became the deputy director of E.M.S., a job he held until his retirement. As a former boss put it Ron's "drive, skill, and enthusiasm built two E.M.S. systems in the Capital Region, Troy and Colonie." Retirement did not slow him down, it allowed him to expand himself in every facet of life there is. He was a full-time ski patrolman at Windham Mountain, a white-water rafting guide on the Hudson River, a private pilot, and a true renaissance man. A desire to never fail and always finish what you started lead him back to college in his 70's. He enrolled as a music major at Schenectady County Community College as the memory of quitting the piano as a teen was something he looked to overcome. Ron was someone you always wanted by your side when things got tough, and he proved his toughness until his dying day. Ron is survived by two sons, Jeffrey Baker and his wife Jessica of Chicago, and Brian Baker and his wife Andrea of Flower Mound, Texas; one brother, Kenneth Baker of Queensbury; two sisters, Bonnie Herbaly of South Glens Falls, and Mary Cowles of New Bern, N.C.; and four grandchildren, Sophie, Luke, Leo, and Tyler.