Howard Baker

Howard Henry Baker, Jr. (November 15, 1925 – June 26, 2014), was the former Majority Leader of the United States Senate and a member of the Republican Party. He was the chief of staff to U.S. President Ronald Reagan from 1987 through 1988 though the two had run against each other for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980. Baker was the U.S. Ambassador to Japan from 2001 to 2005 in the first administration of George W. Bush.

Baker was a son-in-law of Republican former Senate Leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois. Baker won the leadership post after Hugh D. Scott of Pennsylvaniaretired in 1977.

After his first wife, Joy Dirksen, died in 1993, he wed in 1996 a former senatorial colleague, Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker of Kansas. His daughter, Cissy Baker, was an unsuccessful congressional candidate in their native Tennessee.