Momentum Campaign Champion: Georgiana Baker ’69

Georgiana Baker ’69 is opening up new lanes for the next generation of Adelphi student-athletes. “I believe in education,” she said, “and the opportunity to go to college is invaluable.”

An endowed gift from Georgiana Baker ’69 celebrates her late husband, Bill (framed photo).

With her planned $250,000 gift to Adelphi, she’s making that opportunity a reality for current and future Adelphi swimmers. The ripple effects of Georgiana’s philanthropy ensure that talented and motivated student-athletes will be supported throughout their college experience.

In 2007, a loyal group of Adelphi alumni known affectionately as “Team Irwin,” established the William J. Irwin Swimming Scholarship to honor Georgiana’s husband, Bill, the popular coach of the Adelphi men’s and women’s varsity swim teams from 1966 to 1978. The launch of this scholarship coincided with Bill’s induction into the Adelphi University Athletic Hall of Fame, and it is awarded annually to a member of the swim team. The scholarship has benefited 13 students, and donor contributions currently exceed $111,000.

Before Bill died in 2017, he and Georgiana sat down to make decisions about their estate plan. Georgiana suggested a bequest to the University that brought them together and provided them with a lifelong network of friends and community. Supporting the scholarship endowment in Bill’s name was an easy decision for her.

“Bill loved coaching, and he loved swimming, and Adelphi was such a big part of our lives,” Georgiana said. “He made a life around swimming, and I think he would be very pleased about all of this.”

A love for the sport provided a shared foundation for the couple. “Bill was a very good swimmer,” Georgiana recalled, noting that he was an Eastern States Champion and was scheduled to compete in Olympic swimming trials. Instead, he was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War, where, naturally, he ran a swim program. After that, Bill competed with the New York Athletic Club for years, serving as chairman of swimming, and coached three NCAA All-American swimmers during his tenure at Adelphi.

When Georgiana arrived at Adelphi as an undergraduate, she joined two other trailblazing women comprising the original women’s swim team. Georgiana explained, “What drove me was that I wanted to meet people. And I could swim; I knew I was good at that. I looked for a swim team, which for women didn’t really exist at the time. I wanted to do something outside of going to class. I found people who shared that interest—I found my group!” Teammate Sue Tendy ’70, PhD, who became a fast friend, went on to be one of the first women in America to compete in women’s intercollegiate swim meets and was the first women’s swim coach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Georgiana’s academic passions for math and science intersected with her interests in teaching and learning. After graduation, an education professor encouraged her to teach math and science at West Hempstead (New York) Middle School. Before long, she made a career switch to the international business department of Chase Bank in New York City, where she climbed the corporate ladder from administrative assistant to vice president.

Georgiana leaned into her strengths in STEM and developed an early automation process for the regular reports she was charged with running. She not only taught herself Fortran and other programming languages, but also created a new leadership lane for women in corporate operations. “I worked as a programmer and came up through the ranks, and then I ended up running the department!” she said.

Georgiana was one of four inaugural women vice presidents at Chase, and this intrepid and fearless cohort, now living all over the country, still enjoy regular Zoom sessions to catch up and often travel together, even as far as Africa. Georgiana’s career in financial operations continued to accelerate, and as a vice president at Goldman Sachs, she worked to automate systems and coordinate computer operations on the trading floor.

Georgiana and Bill’s life together brought them from New York to Virginia to South Carolina, and “everywhere he coached, he formed a swim team.” Bill created several master’s swim teams—where postcollegiate swimmers compete within appropriate age brackets—which continue to flourish today. “We competed at the national level several times,” Georgiana recalled, noting that the team environment and camaraderie strengthened the bonds of friendship among members of “Team Irwin.”

Following her career in finance, Georgiana earned a master’s degree in statistics and returned to her first occupation, teaching, but this time at the college level. She taught first at Radford University in Virginia and later, from 1999 to 2013, at the University of South Carolina.

Her generosity toward student-athletes is not surprising, and paying it forward is a natural extension of her own personal and professional success. Now swimming remains a key part of Georgiana’s life in retirement. “I love exercise, and I really believe that you have to use it or lose it. Swimming keeps me moving,” she said.

Thanks to her generosity, the Adelphi swim program continues to make waves, and in 2025 enjoyed its most successful season in 15 years, coming in as runner-up at the NE10 Championship.

With her $250,000 planned estate gift to the William J. Irwin Swimming Scholarship, Georgiana is an inspiration as she honors her husband’s legacy and champions the program that meant so much to their family.