Mark Baker

Mark Baker Biography

As a born and bred life-long resident of this great city, and the youngest of 8 children of Fred and Mary Ann Baker, I have always been interested in government and history, and remember well going to the John McIntire Library on Saturday afternoons and reading about those subjects. I knew from a young age that I wanted to take an active role in some way in utilizing my interest in those subjects to contribute whatever I could to the city of Zanesville and its residents. I am a product of mainly Zanesville educational institutions—graduating from St. Nicholas Catholic School, Bishop Rosecrans High School, and spending my first years in college at Ohio University Zanesville. I worked to put myself through college (with untold amounts of love and support from my parents), earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts and Sciences (History and Political Science majors) from Ohio University. I then commenced and eventually finished work on a Master’s degree in history. From there I was employed by Bishop Rosecrans High School, my alma mater, where I am currently employed to this day. Shortly thereafter, I was elected by the residents of the First Ward to city council, a position that I have held, going on 20 years. I have served on a variety of committees through those years, and currently am the Chairman of the Community Development Committee—the committee responsible for recommending legislation to council to redevelop Zanesville’s neighborhoods. The legislation that I am most proud of during those years is the Greenwood Redevelopment Program, which redeveloped much of Greenwood Avenue, and thus revitalizing a vital entry way on historic Route 40 into town. I am most proud, however, not of the legislation that I have helped passed, but rather the people that I have helped—the neighborhood disputes that I helped solve when I could, the constituent problems to which I tried to provide solutions. I am greatly fulfilled by my role as a representative of the residents of the East End of Zanesville. From my early days as a kid on a bike delivering papers to the members of the Downtown Association, to my 23 years working at Zak’s restaurant, to my current teaching position, I am very proud and yes, honored, to serve the residents of my neighborhood, our downtown, and the East End of Zanesville.