Obituary for Rev. William Baxter Jr., from Baltimore Sun, January 21,
2011.





The Rev. William Baxter Jr.

Episcopal clergyman was active in diocesan affairs and was board member
of the Institute of Christian and Jewish Studies

January 21, 2011

By Frederick N. Rasmussen, The Baltimore Sun

The Rev. William Baxter Jr., a retired Episcopal priest and former
rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Owings Mills, died Jan. 13 of
leukemia at his home in Ponte Vedra, Fla.

He was 68.

Mr. Baxter, the son of a federal worker and an educator, was born in
Petersburg, Va., and raised in Bethesda.

After graduating from [Bethesda-]Chevy Chase High School, he attended
the University of Virginia and earned a bachelor's degree in 1965 from
the University of Maryland, College Park.

In 1968, he received a master's degree in divinity from Berkeley
Divinity School at Yale University. Ordained an Episcopal priest that
year, Mr. Baxter later served parishes in Washington and Atlanta and was
a member of the staff of the Diocese of South Carolina.

Mr. Baxter was appointed rector of St. Thomas' in 1979 and held that
position for the next 28 years, until retiring in 2007.

"Bill was a remarkable person who just had a very kind personality,"
said Dr. R. Robinson Baker, a retired Baltimore physician who is a
communicant of the Owings Mills church.

"He loved people and loved the position he was in. He enjoyed taking
care of people and especially those who had problems," Dr. Baker said.

The Rev. Caroline R. Stewart, senior associate rector at the Episcopal
Church of the Redeemer, first became acquainted with Mr. Baker when she
was a vestry member and later a junior and senior warden at St. Thomas.

When Mrs. Stewart decided to enter the priesthood, she said, Mr. Baxter
became a valuable spiritual guide and mentor and preached at her
ordination.

"Bill accompanied me through the seven-year process and has been a great
supporter and mentor for more than 30 years," Mrs. Stewart said.

She recalled that Mr. Baxter was fond of describing himself as "just a
simple country priest."

"Yet now, as I reflect back upon his life, I think Bill was right ... he
was 'just a simple country priest' ... simple not as in plain or naïve
... but rather 'simple' as in uncomplicated and wise; simple as in
confident in his personhood, confident in his priesthood," Mrs. Stewart
said in her eulogy for Mr. Baxter.

"And that is what made him so approachable and so respected. Clearly, he
was well-read and well-traveled. His sermons were regularly supplemented
by stories of his trips as well as his experiences he had in the arts
... poetry, literature, Broadway, movies," she said. "Bill did not like
fuss, either in the pulpit, in the church or in his life."

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