Dan L. Baker

Growing up in a large family of modest means in Oxford, Ohio, Dan worked hard to help support his family and pay for basic necessities. Throughout his childhood, Dan and his brothers hunted and trapped to sell furs and worked for local farmers during hay season. At 15, Dan started working after school and during summers as a laborer for his grandfather, Elmer Baker, in residential masonry. He continued working as a concrete finisher to fund his college education at Miami University (Ohio). At the age of 20, when faced with a cut in wages that he and his brothers could ill-afford, he took a major risk and went into business for himself, convincing his brothers to join him. In the early days, Dan worked in every imaginable facet of the concrete business, all while juggling his college classes. During most of the day, he worked “in the trenches,” placing and finishing concrete alongside his brothers and co-workers.