Inc. Notes

Notes on the disappearance of Ed Baker, Jerry Greenfield's ill-fated bid for selectman and Jack Stack's latest award.

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Last October the NBC television show "Unsolved Mysteries" presented the strange story of Ed Baker, former chief executive of Vanguard Groups International, a three-time Inc. 500 company, who disappeared mysteriously eight years ago. According to host Robert Stack, police identified the charred body found in Baker's burned-out car as that of the CEO. The show's conclusion: Baker, whose company was reported to be in a precarious financial condition, had either committed suicide or been murdered because of a shady loan deal gone bad. Others close to the company, however, remain unconvinced that the body, burned beyond recognition, was his at all. They speculate that Baker took whatever assets he had and fled. . . . Yet another unsolved mystery: Jerry Greenfield, of Ben & Jerry's fame, lost in his bid for a selectman's seat in his hometown in Vermont. Apparently, his opponent was able to convince voters that Jerry was "antigrowth". . . . No mystery here: Jack Stack, president of Springfield Remanufacturing Corp., was a recipient of a Business Enterprise Trust Award, a program created four years ago by Norman Lear to focus attention on models of social activism in business.