Record-Setting Tennessee Blood Donor Looks For Someone To Match Him

The Madison man known as “The Blood Guy” for his record-setting blood donations and for his work at the Nashville office of the Red Cross has retired. Nathan Baker, 62, has given 68 gallons of blood — and counting.

Over 38 years, he also convinced more than 30,000 people to donate blood, mostly by working the phones from the Red Cross office. From there, he was also in a position to give his own blood as often as the rules allow.

To date, that’s 542 pricks of the needle.

When co-workers and friends gathered for his retirement party, Baker’s supervisor, Stephanie Ezell, joked that his first donation, as a Trevecca Nazarene College freshman in 1977, wasn’t purely a humanitarian gesture.

“He said he did it at first to get out of class. Have any of you ever heard that before?” she said. “The second reason he decided to do it was to impress women.”

Baker quickly became “Mr. Red Cross.” He recruited donors and developed a school program that put him in front of nearly 200,000 students.

Along the way, he set the record for the region and inspired co-workers like Brett Crystal, who arrived early to Baker’s party with his arm still in a red bandage. He’d just given blood for the 201st time.

“I’m at 25 gallons, so a long way to go to catch up to our hero here,” Crystal said.

Roughing out the math, Baker said his protégé was on pace to reach his record.

“At 24 times a year, it takes about 20 years … if you don’t take off for vacations,” Baker said.

“I hope my arms hold up. And I hope I can encourage others to donate as well,” Crystal said.

More:
Madison man donates blood for 500th time

Only 14 people have given at least 400 times in the 70-county region that takes in parts of Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and Illinois.

While Baker is retiring, he’ll still volunteer and give blood — at least for a little while.

“At 600 I may retire my blood donor number, you know, maybe,” he said. “No guarantees. I may keep going.”

Baker also plans to write a Red Cross book and to finish converting more than 1,000 VHS tapes into DVDs — all featuring TV news segments about blood donation.

He told the crowd at his party that he loved his job and he implored his peers to personally thank blood donors for their service.

He also recounted a story of a baby born prematurely that spent 75 days in the hospital and required 8 pints of donated blood. Later, he received a thank-you card for his role. It brought him to tears.

“This is a good job,” he told them, “isn’t it?”