About
Our Legacy
If you stop for gas at a Keystone sign in Clarendon PA, you're at the R.E. Baker & Son's gas station and distribution center. In 1945, Rex Elmer Baker started a gas station business at 224 N. Main Street in Clarendon. His three sons, Bob, Jack and Dick, helped to run the business at that time. In 1956, Rex decided to use a "peddle truck" to help deliver fuel oil to local homes and businesses. The smaller volume fuel truck made it easier to navigate the back country roads in this rural area and, as a result, customers were able to receive service no matter how big or small their needs became.
Crushingly, Jack Baker died at the age 52 due to poor health, leaving Dick and Bob Baker as joint proprietors. When Rex retired in 1988, Dick Baker bought the other half of the business from his brother and became the sole owner. Dick's two sons, Jeff and Jerry Baker, continued the family tradition working in the business. In 1997, when Dick retired after 57 years of successful family business, Jeff and Jerry took over the family business and made the company a corporation (Inc).
Continuing the Journey...
The company expanded into a full-service gas station, able to repair all makes and models of trucks and automobiles, including repairing brakes, rotors, drums, exhaust systems, performing tune-ups and oil changes. Bakers offered a lifetime warranty on exhaust systems, using a special custom pipe bending exhaust machine that could meet any custom exhaust specification. A lifetime guarantee was also provided on brakes, and suspension system repair work, ball joints, shocks and tie rods. The service station offered windshield replacement on all makes and models of cars and trucks, while becoming approved by all major insurance companies, no small feat! A cutting edge 24-hour fuel island was added next to the main gas station, using what was then ‘state-of-the-art technology; including access cards and immediate refueling capacity. Local businesses thrived with new-found flexibility and appreciation grew in the community.
Pennsylvania state inspections became the norm, with a full line of all-season and truck tires available from manufacturers such as Cooper, Michelin, Uniroyal, Goodyear, Toyo, and Yokoma. The mechanics and employees of R.E. Baker represented many years of experience, such as Todd Lauffenburger, Douglas Grubbs Senior, Allen Leach, Jim Agnew, and Randy Mountain. A great employer means happy employees, and this became our story! A testimony to this is our longest serving employee having driven the transport and peddle trucks for over 60 years, and still going strong at Baker’s. What a testimony!
More of our Story...
Brothers Jeff and Jerry improved service, quality and a solid local customer base. At the same time, they turned their attention to further strengthening the side of the business most people don't see; distribution of gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, home heating oil, and lubricants. The growth in this business was spurred by the rights to ARCO oil distribution and the license obtained for that distribution in the early 1970's. Since then, R.E. Baker & Sons deliver the Citgo, Gulf Oil, and most recently Keystone brands of gasoline, to eight different local counties in Northwest Pennsylvania, including Warren County. Even today, deliveries are made to other retail service stations and fuel distributors in the area. Home heating oil for homes and business were, and still are made available, as well as a range of lubricants (55 gallon drums, 5 gallon pails, or case motor oil form)
When COVID hit, everyone was overwhelmed with the enormity of the pandemic and its immediate consequences, and Baker’s was faced with a choice to either pivot or fail. Jerry and Jeff decided to change the corporate strategy to one of survival. Doors were closed at the station, but fuel deliveries became the primary focus, and became super important during those blinding years. Bakers delivered with confidence and compassion to those in the local community who needed service, finding ways to ease financial burdens at every opportunity.
Carrying On Our Tradition...
One of the Baker brothers, Jeff, decided to retire in 2020 and stepped away from leadership in the company. And as COVID relented, giving way to new hope, so also another new day dawned at Bakers. The son of Jerry Baker, Jordan, decided to step into the business in making a personal commitment to preserve the family business and uphold traditions long established in the local community. After the dreadful COVID disaster, Baker’s customers saw the emergence of a stronger Baker’s business, more ‘in-the-game’ than ever and embracing new opportunities.
In 2022 Jordan was joined by his future brother-in-law, Craig Johnson, also a local small family business owner in Warren, PA. And at this time Jerry Baker, having contemplated retirement for some years, finally made that mega move in 2023, seeing opportunity for a great transition for the business.
Our Commitment
Together, Jordan and Craig are now bolted together at the helm and excited to enhance the business in a way that makes sense today, while bringing honor and thanks to preceding family members. RE Bakers and Sons will operate through the 21st Century in a deliberate, ‘no-drama’ way. We will be providing services that matter and ignoring those that don’t. We will partner with local fuel providers who need us and be part of a future that creates a better, thriving environment for our customers and local communities.
We are more than a fuel delivery and retail gas station business; we are a testament to the power of family, community, and unwavering dedication. We honor the contributions of every team member, past and present, as we look forward to fueling our community's future.
