Jennifer Baker

Jennifer Leigh Baker, beloved mother, artist, and educator, passed peacefully from this life on August 21, 2025, at the Champlain Valley Senior Community, at the age of 73, following a four-year decline from Alzheimer's.

Endlessly courageous, infinitely loving, and impossibly talented, Jennifer will be deeply missed. Her impact on the world will not be soon forgotten, as her wit and wisdom live on in all those whose lives she touched. She was one of the brightest and most fiercely independent individuals - as anyone who knew her could attest - and the irony and sadness of her final days could not be more profound.

Jennifer often told her sons that, as a little girl, she was extremely inquisitive and loved learning new words. The only dictionary in her childhood home was a massive Oxford English tome, tucked away in the crawl space of her parents' basement - a painful challenge for her to reach, even then, due to bad knees. This difficulty motivated her to make the trip worthwhile by reading at least one additional page of definitions each time. Over the years, she ended up reading the entire dictionary.

Jennifer was born in San Francisco, where she spent her early years before attending San Jose State University, graduating with a degree in fine arts. There, she co-founded the first public recycling center in San Jose, California. She later moved to the East Coast, married Frank H. Deal, Sr., and had one son during that time. She also returned to school, attending the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she earned an M.A. in Medical and Biological Illustration in 1983.

She went on to serve as the Art Director and Medical Illustrator at Tufts University School of Medicine until 1987, after which she taught at Mt. Ida College and the Community College of Rhode Island. She later remarried Karl E. Steinmetz, with whom she had two more sons, before relocating the family to the Lake George region of upstate New York to help care for her in-laws.

In 1995, Jennifer became an adjunct professor of fine arts and sciences at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont. Over the next 24 years, she rose to full professor, chaired the art department, served on countless committees, contributed to the evolution of general education, presented at national conferences, and won multiple awards for teaching excellence.

During her time at GMC, she found true fulfillment when she met the love of her life, Paul Emerson Opel, who, as a child, had read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. They were married in January 2009 and enjoyed three short but joyful years together before Paul's diagnosis with prostate cancer in the fall of 2011 and his passing in March 2012 at the age of 55. Their shared love of food, music, and life's more bizarre forms of humor beautifully complemented Jennifer's already well-developed and unique artistic sensibilities.

In addition to nurturing and enriching the lives of hundreds of students during her tenure, she also ensured all three of her sons received a tuition-paid college education. Jennifer was a lifelong learner and creator - continually expanding her skills in figure drawing, illustration, graphic design, sculpture, stone carving, glass etching, tile mosaic, singing, acting, and flute playing.

Jennifer is survived by her son Frank Deal of Las Vegas, NV; her son Maxx Steinmetz of Essex, VT; her son Cameron Steinmetz, his wife Allison, and their son Dalton, also of Essex, VT; her sister Sidni Richards, her husband Scott, and their son Jair of Mi-Wuk Village, CA; her loving extended family throughout the USA and abroad via her late husband Paul Emerson Opel. In lieu of funerary services, and per Jennifer's request, her ashes will be dispersed in various locations that were meaningful to her and her late husband. A memorial service may possibly be scheduled at a later date.