Roll Call Tribute

Jacob Taylor Baker 

May 13, 1992 - January 30, 2024 

Jacob Baker, 31, passed away on January 30th, 2024. Funeral arrangements by Willowbrook Funeral Home will be held Thursday, February 29, 2024 at 2:00 PM Fairview Cemetery, 1620 North A Street, Midland, Texas 79701. www.willowbrk.com/ 

On January 30th, 2024 Jacob Taylor Baker departed from this Earth to reach the next life. He was a curious, smart young man who followed his lifelong passions in music, martial arts, and his love of cooking. Jacob possessed a fearlessness, and loved to travel and learn about other cultures, especially the food. He served two tours in the US Navy and was deployed to Manama, Bahrain from September 2010 through September 2015 on the USS Devastator MCM-6. Jacob served as a Firefighter/Damage Controlman Second Class, training sailors in fire-fighting and equipment usage, emergency drills, safety and maintenance.

At the young age of 13, Jacob won his first music competition in the 7th grade which spurred his life long love of music. This early accomplishment catapulted his career in music and led to him becoming an accomplished musician playing cello, and other instruments including, standup bass, and guitar. He excelled at music and won a national competition out of seventy thousand students during his senior year of high school, debuting a solo performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City. His other achievements include obtaining a black belt in Karate. Jacob graduated from Midland High School with honors and supported himself throughout high school working in the food service industry.

He made music and loved learning everything there is about food which he made his life's work majoring in Food Science at Texas A&M University in Food Systems Industry Management, a new program which focuses on the food systems in place from "tip to tail," i.e. soil, etc. College Station was his home, and in his free time Jacob was an avid player of Dungeons and Dragons, and a devout reader of military history.

He touched so many people and lived voraciously visiting some of his favorite places on Earth while in the Navy, and loved to travel. He will be immeasurably missed by his family, friends and all of the people he impacted in his short, sweet life.

He is survived by his mother Paula Baker, and his father Jeffrey T. Baker, his brother Joshua Tyler Baker, in addition to his grandmother Lydia Castellon of Midland, Texas and his extended family of aunts and uncles who live throughout Texas. Jacob lives on in the hearts of all the people he touched throughout his life.

"The soul comes from without into the human body, as into a temporary abode, and it goes out of it anew it passes into other habitations, for the soul is immortal." "It is the secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die, but only retire a little from sight and afterwards return again." Ralph Waldo Emerson