Richard L. Baker, 89, former Campbell Soup Co. executive

Richard L. Baker was among more than 30 men who for years have attended a weekly Bible study class at the First Presbyterian Church in Moorestown.

"He never missed it. He had a longing to know Scripture," the Rev. Jonathan Miller, the First Presbyterian pastor, said in a phone interview.

Getting there took some effort, Miller said: The class was held each Wednesday, at 6:30 a.m.

On Friday, Sept. 5, Mr. Baker, 89, who retired in 1990 as deputy general counsel for Campbell Soup Co., died of heart failure at his home in Moorestown.

"He was a man of quiet but very meaningful piety," Miller said. "There was a humility in Dick's stride that was uncommon for a person of his stature in the business world and the church."

Mr. Baker was a First Presbyterian elder for the 20 years that Miller has been there and served in the Presbytery of West Jersey, the organization of 64 churches in seven counties.

"He was concerned about justice issues," Mr. Miller said. "He was very concerned about how the church can be faithful in a changing world."

And, he said, Mr. Baker's son Richard L. Jr., a former minister in Indianapolis, "has just taken a call to serve as pastor of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dayton, Ohio."

A 1943 graduate of Central High School in Philadelphia, Mr. Baker earned a bachelor's in economics at the College of William and Mary in 1946 and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1949.

After working for a year for a Philadelphia law firm, Mr. Baker was a lawyer for the former Pennsylvania Railroad from 1951 to 1963, daughter Virginia Baker said.

A year with Allied Chemical Corp. in New York City was followed by his second major career, as a lawyer with Campbell Soup, from 1965 to 1990.

At his retirement he was a vice president and corporate secretary as well as deputy general counsel, his daughter said.

At William and Mary, she said, he was a member of the track team and later endowed a track scholarship there.

"He was an avid runner," she said, "participating in a number of half marathons in Philadelphia," even completing a full 26.5 mile marathon there.

"He stopped running in his early 70s," she said.

For William and Mary, he was a member of a committee of alumni and faculty that studied the expansion of its Earl Gregg Swem Library, said daughter Virginia Baker.

He was a board member in the 1970s and 1980s for Moorestown Ecumenical Neighborhood Development Inc., a nonprofit that builds, owns, and manages affordable rental housing in Burlington County.

In the 1980s, he was a Sunday School teacher for high school students at First Presbyterian, she said, and in the 1990s, he tutored Camden youngsters for the organization, UrbanPromise.

From 2006 to 2008, he was a finance committee member for The Evergreens, the Moorestown retirement community.

Besides his daughter Virginia and his son, Mr. Baker is survived by his wife of 64 years, Virginia, daughter Phyllis B. Niles and four grandchildren.

A memorial service was set for 11 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 11, at the First Presbyterian Church, 101 Bridgeboro Rd., Moorestown, N.J. 08057, with private interment.

Donations may be sent to the church at the above address.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.lewisfuneralhomemoorestown.com.