GERARD BAKER

My Dad was a good friend to Paige Baker, Gerards father. Gerard and I were in the same grade at Mandaree School, Mandaree, North Dakota for our elementary years. Bob Rindt, Galen Boutwell, Edith Veeder, Charlotte Hall, and of course the one and only 5th Grade teacher we had, Mrs. Norma Chinn who was the 2nd best teacher I had in my life.  She was one of the two black teachers I had in elementary, Mrs. Norma Chinn. She was the Daughter of Herman and Irene Wald Ewing. She was married in 1938 to Allen P. Chinn. She had been an elementary teacher for a total of 36 years. Twenty-three at the Brunswick B.K. Bruce School, where she retired as principal and 13 years at the Mandaree Indian Reservation in Mandaree, N.D.  I remember well the pow-wow they had for Mr. and Mrs. Chinn for their retirement from Mandaree School, Gerard and I Indian danced all night long and about wore out.  We got after it! 

Our parents sent Gerard and I off to a private Catholic boarding school in New England, ND in the fall of 1968 where we played football and basketball together and shared a bunk, Gerard on the bottom, Dean up top. Gerard and I had been alter boys at St. Anthony's in Mandaree, a Roman Catholic Church on the Fort Berthold Reservation at Mandaree, ND serving the surrounding community. The church was located 4 miles east of Mandaree, ND. Gerard went on to a distinguished career with the National Park Service and I went into business for myself. Today, we both own ranches about 13 miles apart as the crow flies, Gerard's property up Graveyard Creek, ours on the Yellowstone River, here at Ghost Ranch.