Merlin O. Baker is a graduate of Brigham Young University. After graduation he served in the Counter Intelligence Corps of the United States Army for twenty-one months. He received a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Chicago Law School and was elected to the Editorial Board of the University of Chicago Law Review.

He practiced law with the law firms of Sidley & Austin in Chicago, Illinois and Ray, Quinney & Nebeker in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has served as a member and also as Chairman of the Board of Visitors of the Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law School.

He served as president of the Canada-Halifax Mission which encompasses the four Atlantic provinces of Canada. He and his wife, Marian Johnson Baker, have seven children.

Merlin maintains a website for his book Understanding Alcohol and Drug Addiction: An LDS Perspective at http://www.understandingaddictionlds.com.