Views from the Hill | 2023 Issue 1

IN MEMORIAM

Bill Bakke 1960 HGS A HOPKINS LEGEND Faculty Emeritus William Bakke 1960 HGS, a true Hopkins legend and beloved member of the School community, passed away on January 5, 2023. Bill’s long tenure spanned multiple decades and a variety of roles: faculty member, coach, and administrator. A testament to his love for Hopkins, Bill returned to the Hill not once, but three times throughout his professional life, to share his knowledge and wisdom for the betterment of the School. In 1964, fresh from Earlham College in Indiana, Bill joined Hopkins as a history teacher and coach for soccer and ice hockey. Later, in 1971, after a brief stint as an administrator at the George School, he rejoined the Hopkins faculty, and in that time, developed new history courses and established the School’s lacrosse team. He returned a third time in 1990, after earning a master’s degree in history, a doctorate in law, a master’s in tax law, and practicing law for six years, to serve as Hopkins’ Associate Head of School for Administration, Finance and Operations. In a 2002 interview for Views from the Hill , Bill said he came back to Hopkins because he felt indebted to the School for providing him the skills to be successful in college, as an educator, and as a lawyer: “Hopkins seemed to offer the irresistible prospect satisfying both my sense of indebtedness and a desire to contribute my talents and energies to the perpetuation of the vitality of Hopkins,” he said. Under Bill’s leadership and tenure, the School’s endowment grew from $2.8 million to more than $50 million, and the student body grew from under 550 to more than 660. Bill’s loyalty, work ethic, sense of humor, and deep love for Hopkins earned him the respect and gratitude of the entire Hopkins community. On the occasion of his retirement in 2007, the Hopkins Committee of Trustees contributed $30,000 in Bill’s honor to the E. Wight Bakke Fund, established in 1976 by Mary Bakke in memory of her husband and Bill’s father, E. Wight Bakke, to support the Hopkins library and scholarship. David Baxter, Hopkins Chief Financial and Operating Officer, expressed the following about Bill: “When you are charged with the financial stewardship of an institution that has been going for well over three centuries; job one is to keep it going. Job two is to hopefully leave it better than you found it. Unquestionably, Bill Bakke achieved both during his time at Hopkins. Through his dedication, skill, and discipline, Bill left Hopkins better than he found it. I am reminded of this every day when I see the financial and business structures he built here, and when I walk past the Malone Science Center, athletic fields, and Heath Commons thathe helped build here. He will be missed. Tibi gratias ago , Bill.” Bill is survived by his wife, Patricia Bakke; his brother, Karl Bakke 1947 HGS and sister-in-law, Norma W. Bakke; his sister, Carolyn “Kitty” Bakke Bacdayan 1954 PHS and brother-in-law, Albert Bacdayan. He was pre- deceased by his parents, Edward Wight Bakke and Mary Sterling Bakke.

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2023 • ISSUE 1 | VIEWS FROM THE HILL

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