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Integrity In Action

Will Baker, President of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Receives 2016 Integrity in Action Award

The 17th annual award ceremony honored the president of a regional ecological non-profit organization.
On April 12, the EHS community welcomed Mr. William C. Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, as the recipient of the Allen C. Phillips, Jr. Integrity in Action Award.

"We annually recognize an individual who is a living example of the value of integrity,” said Headmaster Rob Hershey. “Will Baker has charted his life course with a deep commitment to improve the lives of so many by improving our environment. In accepting this award and coming to campus to address our community, Will serves as tremendous inspiration to our students as an example of a life based on principle and service to others."

Baker has a lifelong history at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, where he began as an intern after college in 1976 and moved through the ranks into the presidency in 1982. He has received numerous awards and honors, including the 1992 Presidential Medal for Environmental Excellence awarded to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in recognition of its environmental education program.

As a child, Baker first heard of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation on a bumper sticker while riding in the car with his father. He saw the words “Save The Bay.”

“Those three little words changed my life,” Baker said to the EHS community during his presentation. “Three little words that just might change the world.”

Baker illustrated ways the community can cut down on environmental impact by discussing green building design. He introduced the concept of negawatts, or negative watts—anti-energy. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation headquarters building was the world’s first LEED Platinum building, but Baker claims the organization’s Brock Environmental Center is the “greenest building in the world.” It maintains a net zero of water, energy, and waste by using geothermal heating and cooling, solar and wind power, and is the first building in the United States to be permitted to use rain water for drinking.

Baker’s accomplishments and his leadership of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation are personified by his own definition of integrity.

“Integrity is a huge and powerful word, yet simple. It’s about honesty. One could say there is no more important human quality.”

At the end of Baker’s address, Hershey presented the Allen C. Phillips Award for Integrity in Action. He called Baker a living example of one person doing what he believes is good with his own life.

"In accepting this award, Will joins a number of exemplary individuals from different fields who have similarly directed their lives including: Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health; Nicholas Kristoff, columnist at the New York Times: Stephen Lewis, co-director of AIDS-Free World; Marian Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund," Hershey said.

"EHS established the prestigious Integrity in Action award in 1999 in honor of Mr. Allen C. Phillips—a distinguished faculty member whose dedication to character, integrity, and sacrifice is legendary at EHS. He served a remarkable 40-year tenure at EHS and for 26 years served as faculty advisor of the School's Honor Committee. He truly embodied the School's commitment to academic excellence, the dignity of each individual, the enduring importance of living a life based on principle."
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