Jerry Baker, died on September 10, 2015 from acute myeloid leukemia, while surrounded by family during a vacation in Philadelphia. He was a American cyclist.

Bicycle enthusiast Jerry covered so much territory in his lifetime that wherever he rode, he recalled last winter.

He was a race organizer for the Marymoor Velodrome, put on cyclocross and youth events, and served as an early leader in the Cascade Bicycle Club, which blogged about his talent for making friends.

Back in 1979, he placed first in the first Seattle-to-Portland bicycle classic, which originated as a time trial.

He was so recognizable that friends maintained a Facebook page called “Jerry is Everywhere” to post pictures of him at coffee shops or along the road, where a smile broadened his white beard.

As a student at the University of Washington in 1965, the Tacoma native took up cycling to shed extra pounds he gained freshman year.

That led to racing. A few years later, he won a Mercer Island road race by covering 54 miles in two hours, six minutes, and he won a state track-racing title.

Jerry was a mechanical engineer at Boeing, where he worked on the 737 and belonged to a bicycle club, before being laid off in 1971 from the supersonic transport (SST) program when it closed, said his daughter, Julia Baker.

He created Baker’s Bikes, a business based in his Volkswagen van that sold mail-order custom and imported bicycles and components.

With his wife, Deborah Stephenson, he co-founded Baleno, a cycling-apparel business, in Seattle.

Jerry Baker died at age 73 on September 10, 2015.