Chaplain earns that smile

His was the face on the photo's far left, beaming above a plaque clutched close to his chest.

Richard Baker, American Legion chaplain, was one of seven people honored by the local Legion on Aug. 2. But his recognition ascended the rest. That's because Baker was also named Idaho Legionnaire of the Year.

We confess that Richard Baker is one of our very favorite people. Despite health problems that would devastate others, his smile is immovable, his concern is always for others, and his arsenal of good, clean jokes is seemingly limitless.

Baker's humility was on full display when we recently exchanged email on his honor.

"I got the shock of my life," he admitted. Using words like "stunned" and "startled," he was called to the front of the Legion hall, and it was there he learned that earlier in Twin Falls, he had been named Legionnaire of the Year for the entire state. The honor was intentionally kept a secret from him until last week's local ceremony.

"My friend David Sheridan went up and received the award for me [in Twin Falls]," Richard wrote. "He was the man that asked me to be Chaplain many years ago."

Had he known of the award in Twin Falls, Richard probably couldn't have made it anyway "because of the cost of going and attending."

No matter. On Aug. 2, standing before the fellow Legionnaires he respects so much, Richard Baker looked like a little boy who has found a brand new bicycle under his Christmas tree.

"I've never been so rattled or my heart so touched in my life," he wrote.

Well, Richard, it's about time. You've touched so many hearts over the years that it finally came full circle back to you.

Congratulations, dear friend. Savor the love and respect that thousands of Legionnaires have bestowed on you, which is felt by so many more of your friends and neighbors here in North Idaho.

And until we meet again, did you hear the one about the Irishman, Patrick, who walks into a Dublin pub and orders three pints of Guinness?