Cross & Crescent

Growing up in Lexington, Kentucky, Dr. Elgan L. Baker Jr. (DePauw 1971) liked DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, from the moment he first visited the campus.

“It was far enough away from home that I thought my parents wouldn’t bother me, but close enough so that I could get home if I needed to,” he says.

Baker also liked the school’s strong academic reputation and Greek system.

He began his studies as a pre-med major but along the way he became “very interested in psychology,” and eventually graduated with a triple major: pre-med, psychology, and French.

Joining Lambda Chi

Baker joined Lambda Chi Alpha “for the same reason that most people do — I liked the guys who I met.”

He was impressed by the caliber of the members and their collective sense of ambition.

“I also felt from the beginning that there was a kind of closeness and emphasis on brotherhood that I didn’t feel so much at the other houses,” he says.

During his undergraduate years, Baker served the chapter as alumni secretary, rush chairman, and president.

“I know that my leadership skills were very much enhanced by those experiences,” he says. “Even though we had a very strong chapter where there were lots of talented people, there were nevertheless challenges to face and conflicts to solve, and difficulties in planning and budget and so forth to try and figure out.”

Those early experiences gave him the opportunity to practice becoming a more effective communicator and leader who could generate cooperation and the affirmation of authority. “It was a very powerful experience for me,” he says.

The Fraternity also helped shape his future career in psychology.

“I think that clarification of the central importance of relationships not only became a kind of organizing theme in my life but also colored my choice of my profession, which very much is based on working with people and to form a helping relationship that will be facilitated to their growth and functioning in the world,” he says.

Teaching and Private Practice

After DePauw, Baker was accepted into the doctoral psychology program at the University of Tennessee, and completed his degree in 1976.

He then taught and finished his training in Houston, Texas, before moving to Indianapolis, Indiana, to teach at the Indiana University Medical School.

Having always wanted to be involved in academia, Baker soon realized that he loved to teach.

“It is for me really gratifying to interact with students, to engage their intellectual curiosity, to watch them grow,” he says. “Because I have been involved a lot in professional education with medical students, graduate students, interns, residents, fellows, there’s a sense that as I help them to learn our field I am shaping the way in which they practice, which allows me to kind of indirectly touch the lives of a lot of the patients they will eventually treat.”

In addition to teaching and his medical writings, Baker spends the rest of his time in his private practice, Meridian Psychological Associates, which he formed with a multi-disciplinary group of clinicians.

Hans H. Strupp Award

At the 2007 Leadership Seminar last summer in Memphis, Tennessee, Baker received a call telling him that he had won the Hans H. Strupp Award, the highest honor given in the field of psychoanalysis.

“It was particularly exciting to hear about it then because I was able to share it first with all my brothers who were present at that meeting who very generously expressed their excitement about me having won the award,” he says.

The award was established to honor Hans Strupp, an influential psychologist and psychoanalyst who practiced for most of his career at Vanderbilt University. The award commemorates his career and contributions but also honors other people who are felt to have made significant contributions to the field.

Baker received the award at a formal ceremony in November 2007, at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee, with many of his professors, former students, interns, and classmates present.

“There were just a whole bunch of people who were important to me in my development and friends through the years who were there to share the event with me,” he says. “I think it’s hard to put into perspective what you have done. I certainly have known about the influence of my work to some degree but I never, ever would have thought I would be honored with an award like this.”

Ironically, the award has been given periodically over the years to some of Baker’s professional and intellectual heroes so he never imagined he would receive it.

“I guess if it has done anything in terms of ‘changing me,’ it is that it has made me feel especially appreciative that people have respected my work as much as they have, and that my colleagues think as highly as they do,” he says.

True Brother Initiative

Baker has served the Fraternity in some capacity as an alumnus over the last 35 years, including serving as a chapter adviser for six different chapters.

During the last year, one of the biggest highlights involved his participation with the True Brother Initiative.

Baker strongly believes that the program will positively influence the lives of undergraduate brothers as they move into their alumni years and become citizens of a broader world.

“The sense of passion and mission about that has been really energizing for me,” he says. “I’ve also had the chance to work with the committee of other brothers and it feels kind of like doing Fraternity (work) again as an undergraduate.”

Research shows that there are developmental variables in the undergraduates that the program and Fraternity can successfully influence.

“Not only will True Brother make stronger chapters — with brothers who have better relationships with each other and are more effective leaders in their [chapters] and on their campuses — but maybe even more importantly that they are going to live healthier lives, with greater resilience to stress, with greater expectations to longevity, that they will be able to form and maintain healthier relationships with stronger marriages and better parenting skills,” he says.

Chapter Adviser

Currently, Baker is the chapter adviser at Butler University, which he often correlates to teaching.

“I think the same kind of excitement and pleasure I get from teaching students in a classroom comes from working with our undergraduate brothers as they learn from their involvement in the Fraternity about how to be leaders, how to be more effective communicators, how to integrate values into the way they live, and how to chart the course they are going to follow for the rest of their lives after they graduate,” he says.

Outgoing Butler chapter President Michael W. Landes (Butler 2008) says Baker has been instrumental in helping guide the chapter through some challenging times.

“Dr. Baker has had a profound effect on [our chapter] here at Butler University,” Landes says. “He helped guide our chapter from the proverbial pit of the past to the heights that we are at now. In essence, he helped us realize the potential in ourselves and showed us how to apply it so we could excel.”

Baker also helps inject optimism and provides encouragement and motivation for the chapter members to stand up for what is right, not necessarily do what is easy.

“I like how he stays constantly involved,” Landes says. “I know there are a lot of chapters, not only in Lambda Chi Alpha but other Greek organizations as well, that rarely see their adviser. Dr. Baker is at every meeting we have to show his support and provide insight into our dealings.”

Great Rewards

The rewards of being involved with the Fraternity as an alumnus are great and Baker recommends that all alumni seek out an opportunity with a local chapter.

“Because not only is it gratifying, but it is really fun,” he says. “It keeps you alive in many ways. The vitality and energy which these young men bring into your life is more than enough reward for any frustration you occasionally feel for trying to help them find the right way.”