Randy Scott Baker
Randy Scott Baker
April 16, 1959 — July 16, 2025
Randy Baker was inventive, determined, charming and funny as hell — if you could put up with him long enough to see it. He didn’t like to go many places, and he didn’t claim many people to be his friends. Truth be told, he liked animals more than people. It boggles the mind how he managed to keep Tammy Baker (Young) married to him for 46 years. She claims it began around the time he gifted her a drawing of a cheetah. He was, after all, an exceptional artist.
Randy and Tammy grew their family against the backdrop of his military service: first in the U.S. Air Force as law enforcement at Lackland Air Force Base (Texas), then George Air Force Base (Calif.) in airfield management. By the time Randy and Tammy moved back to Lock Haven, Pa., together, they had two boys (Jeremy and Michael) and were expecting a girl (Jackie). There, he served in the National Guard and held various other jobs, including District Manager at The Lock Haven Express and a designer/engraver at Addie’s in Lock Haven.
He was a prolific and obsessive artist who spent a lifetime transforming everyday materials and detritus into fine art and unbelievable furnishings. Over the years, he applied his mastery of materials to use in sign-making, construction, crafting props and set pieces for various theater companies and commission work. At 40 years old, he was determined to go back to school and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts/Studio with an emphasis in 2D and 3D studies and a minor in Art History from Lock Haven University, followed by a dual Master’s of Fine Arts in both Ceramic and Sculpture from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Randy had a lifelong love of tabletop gaming and was an eccentric dungeon master (DM) for Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) for nearly four decades. He crafted a custom set of 1st edition rules within a fully-envisioned world of his own called Car’eone, and fully immersed his players with game pieces, characters, artifacts, spells, systems and props of his own design. He organized and led play groups in the military, out of his home, at LHU, and in a repurposed church dubbed “The Asylum.” Anyone who joined him at the table became a rare and forever friend.
Randy was the proud, playful grandfather and part-time caregiver to 10 grandchildren: Gabriel, David, Noah (Jeremy/Heather Watkins), Jocelyn, Kaden, Raya, Brinley, Madelyn (Michael/Natalee Kenny), Nico and Juna (Jackie/David Bielewicz).
He departed this plane suddenly and in his sleep beside the love of his life, Tammy, and left behind a chasm in the place where his talents and attention once were: in his home, in the lives of his children and grandchildren and around the game table.
A memorial dedicated to Randy and his love of art, gaming and rock and roll will be held at Haywood’s on the Green, upstairs banquet room, 43 Fairway Drive, Mill Hall, Pa., on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025, from 2-5 p.m.
A GoFundMe has been launched to support his family during this time of sudden transition and financial hardship: www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-baker-family-recover
Arrangements are under the direction of Donald G. Walker Funeral Home, Inc., 231 High St., Flemington.
Online condolences may be given by visiting www.donaldwalkerfuneralhome.com