Most important is his family, daughter Kelly, sons Jeff '85 and Mike '90. At the top of that short list? His wife, Barbara. "I don't think I've ever seen anybody who loved anybody that much," Baker said.

Working with Earl Smith, she said, "almost gave you hope that people were fundamentally good."

And that belief, that there is goodness and potential in most people, that most problems pale if put in perspective, that sincere fondness for the College and what it does, does color Smith's career and the swath he cut through Colby over four decades.

Smith in Kenya, where he visited long-time friend friend Bill Mayaka '73 and his family.

Over lunch at the Spa, he reminisced about the Colby he came to in 1962 and the "family" that welcomed him. "I knew them all and they were all older," he said softly, with a tone of bemusement that is his trademark. "We built a house down here and Bill Millett came down with his car filled with silverware and had a surprise housewarming. It was just that kind of a place in those days. And I was the young pup and George Whalen (superintendent of Building and Grounds) used to come down and have dinner and talk with us and stay in the evening. There's a man you would have adored."

Smith described Whalen, his Land Rover, the sand box he had built for the Smith kids, the time he scrounged four discarded chairs for the Smith kitchen table, how he helped build Fort Devens during World War II.

There were others. Bill Macomber. Earl McKeen. "You name these people," Smith said. "God, they're all dead."

But they live in Smith's affections and memories, which haven't diminished over the decades.

"What is it that, when it's all said and done, matters?" he said. " A lot of friends. Because of the transient nature of students and faculty you can't be at a small place and get to know that number of people any other way on earth. If you worked at a factory somewhere, you would tend to know the same people. A college, you get to meet new people all the time. Where else can you do that?

"And interesting people. Maybe that's all anyone can ever accomplish. I don't want to wax philosophical but it's a comfort to have been at a place like this. You probably don't ever leave it. You probably always have these ties and these friends."

It's a safe bet.