Merle Baker

MOULTRIE, Ga. — What started off as a history class taught in the Moultrie-Colquitt County Library in 1987 turned into the two-story extension of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, known as ABAC on the Square, through the dedication of Merle Baker.

Baker died Tuesday at Colquitt Regional Medical Center.

Baker joined the ABAC staff as an instructor of history in social science on Sept. 1, 1966. She began teaching a  United States history class at the library in Moultrie in the winter semester of 1987.

That class contained only eight students, but it grew. In succeeding semesters, ABAC teachers taught more and more classes until they eventually had to use both the library and some of the technical college facilities on Industrial Drive.

One year after Baker started the off-campus classes, she was named coordinator of Moultrie Off-Campus Programs at ABAC.

Baker became the forefront of having an ABAC campus in Moultrie and became very active when the J.C. Penney building, at 31 E. Central Ave., was donated to ABAC in 1992. The Regents Board matched the donation of $214,910, raised by ABAC to remodel the first floor of the J.C. Penney building in 1993, and on March 16, 1997, a ribbon cutting was held for the unveiling of the first floor of ABAC on the Square.

On April 2, 1997, ABAC opened its doors and began teaching eight classes with a total of 88 students. Two years later, the second floor was completed on Oct. 17, 1999.

Baker was named director of evening and off-campus programs at ABAC in 1996, and then an honorary alumnus in 2002, two years after her retirement with 34 years of service to the school.

ABAC on the Square now offers 21 classes for the fall semester that begins on Aug. 10, and ABAC credits this to the hard work and dedication of Merle Baker.