Those who gathered yesterday for a fund-raising luncheon for the Studio Museum in Harlem were unable to delight in the art on view there (still lifes by Charles Ethan Porter and a work by young African artists), as they were at the Mandarin Oriental. Instead, they ate salad and sea bass and delighted in one another, and in particular the photographer Carrie Mae Weems. The museum’s special projects director, Lea Green, showed photographs on her cell phone of curator Christine Kim’s three-month-old, Louisa.

He transformed public television in the New York metropolitan area. He put Charlie Rose on the air at 11, and before that, he discovered Oprah. Who is he? Bill Baker, past president of the Educational Broadcasting Corp. for 21 years: a bow-tie wearer, lighthouse keeper, and fund-raiser, recognizable to so many in the area from pledge drives as “the friendly man with the baritone voice,” according to its chairman, James Tisch.

Mr. Baker was the corporation’s honoree Monday at a gala that raised $3 million and featured a live performance by the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts Chamber Singers. There was some television, too: a video tribute on which his daughter Christine summed up the feelings of the patrons gathered: “I couldn’t put him on a higher pedestal,” she said.

The current president, Neal Shapiro, has already acted on the advice Mr. Baker gave him on his first day on the job, “to be bold and take a chance.” For example, he lets viewers choose the short films air on Saturday nights. He said he knew he was onto to something when a hipster in a pizza parlor in Bushwick recently recognized him and thanked him for the Saturday night line-up.

When not at galas, I like nothing more than to curl up with a good book. So I have great appreciation for the work of Reading Reform Foundation, celebrated Wednesday at Jazz at Lincoln Center. The foundation’s in-school teacher training program has helped thousands of children learn to read.

Isiah Hall, who is a few weeks from completing his M.B.A., on Wednesday night was in a room filled with businessmen, at the Partnership with Children’s centennial gala. Mr. Hall served as a shining example of the success of the partnership’s “Open Heart-Open Mind” program, which sends social workers into schools to help children address problems (Mr. Hall was treated for his asthma). He introduced the honoree, the chief executive of financing firm CIT, Jeffrey Peek. Acknowledging a rough 90 days for the market, Mr. Peek told Mr. Hall, “You’re an impressive young man; this is a good time for you to come in and figure it all out.”

agordon@nysun.com