Jim Baker: Ministering to the Media

In the mid 1950s James A. Baker III enrolled at the University of Texas Law School in Austin. It was something that was expected of him by his father, James A. Baker II. “Jimmy” Baker pledged with the Phi Delta Theta fraternity—his father expected that, too, even though Jimmy was seven years older than his Phi Delta brothers, and was married, with a baby son. He had graduated from Princeton and served two years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He went along with the fraternity rituals in good spirit. Throughout Hell Week he even walked around with a dead fish awkwardly attached to his anatomy.

“I did that for my father,” Baker told the writer Taylor Branch in 1982. “He wanted me to do it because he had done it. He believed it was the smart thing to do. If you’re going to practice law in Texas you go to the law school in Austin and make all the contacts you can. They’ll pay off later.” When Baker was growing up his father would come into the bedroom in the morning with a pitcher of cold water, ready to pour it over the bed if Jimmy didn’t leap up immediately. Baker II would be all dressed up and ready to go to work at Baker & Botts, the Houston law firm. “My old man was tough with me,” Jimmy said.

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Tom Bethell

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In the mid 1950s James A. Baker III enrolled at the University of Texas Law School in Austin. It was something that was expected of him by his father, James A. Baker II. “Jimmy” Baker pledged with the Phi Delta Theta fraternity—his father expected that, too, even though Jimmy was seven years older than his Phi Delta brothers, and was married, with a baby son. He had graduated from Princeton and served two years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He went along with the fraternity rituals in good spirit. Throughout Hell Week he even walked around with a dead fish awkwardly attached to his anatomy.

“I did that for my father,” Baker told the writer Taylor Branch in 1982. “He wanted me to do it because he had done it. He believed it was the smart thing to do. If you’re going to practice law in Texas you go to the law school in Austin and make all the contacts you can. They’ll pay off later.” When Baker was growing up his father would come into the bedroom in the morning with a pitcher of cold water, ready to pour it over the bed if Jimmy didn’t leap up immediately. Baker II would be all dressed up and ready to go to work at Baker & Botts, the Houston law firm. “My old man was tough with me,” Jimmy said.