R. Lisle Baker always removes his dark-framed glasses and buttons his sport coat when he rises to speak to his colleagues.

"My wife always fusses at me and says, 'Try to look presentable,'" said Baker, 61, the accent from his native Lexington, Ky., barely audible.

Time will tell whether Baker will have his glasses on or off when he stands on the podium to address his fellow aldermen on Monday, Jan. 5, as its newly elected president.

The Ward 7 alderman moved to Boston in 1965 to attend Harvard Law School. He then met his wife, Sally, and moved to their first apartment in Newton in 1968.

For fun, he used to work with stained glass. He even holds a patent on a lamp he designed, made of two pieces fused together.

"That was fun," he said. "The only reason I had a patent on it was I had a neighbor in the building who was a patent lawyer. I gave him a lamp as his fee."

Since then, Baker joined the faculty at the Suffolk University Law School in 1973, and has taught there for 30 years. Recently, they gave him a clock.

"You wonder what they think about you when they give you a clock," he said.

Baker and his wife enjoy watching old movies and taking walks in the morning before heading to work. They have three adult daughters, two whom they visit just a couple of times each year over long weekends in Los Angeles.

But Baker said he splits most of his time between teaching and working on the Board of Aldermen. For the law professor, public service was a natural fit.

"I was actually always interested in public service," he said. "When I was in college, [former Boston Mayor] Kevin White came to speak to us, and he said, "You always have a professional life if you want to be in public service. You don't always win elections.'"

Baker got his start in politics in 1978 when Lois Pines, then a state representative from Newton, ran for Secretary of State, opening up her seat in the House. Baker ran for her seat, against a young alderman from Ward 7 named David Cohen.

"It was a four-way race and David won handily," he said. "So when David retired [from the board] ... I decided to run for his job."

Baker served from 1979 until 1983. After a four-year break, he decided to run again and has held the seat representing Chestnut Hill ever since.

It hasn't always been easy, he says. But he considers his work to help the city acquire the Newton Commonwealth Golf Course one of his biggest achievements.

"That was very complicated, and it ultimately has made a profit for the city and will provide open space for the city for years to come," he said.

Baker used his expertise as a law professor to research the concept of a betterment assessment, which raises money through increased property taxes on only those homes that would benefit most from the golf course's preservation.

When the city eventually purchased the golf course, it was Baker's betterment assessment that made it possible.

But for Baker, the human dimensions of the job are more challenging than the intellectual ones.

"When you go into court, you've got one judge or 12 jurors," he said. "Here I've got 23 colleagues. Sometimes I'm persuasive, and sometimes they persuade me."

That point was most clearly evident in 1994, when he and former Alderman Dick McGrath were deadlocked in the vote to elect the board's president. After 85 days, McGrath then nominated Tom Concannon to be president of the Board of Aldermen. Concannon went on to become mayor when then-Mayor Theodore Mann passed away shortly thereafter.

When the city held a special election later that year, Baker challenged Concannon, but lost.

This time around, Baker was pleased to be on the winning side of a vote.

"I guess I finally hit the Baker's dozen," said the man who is now a heartbeat away from the mayor's job. "I feel very honored to be chosen to lead the board, and I'm going to have my hands full."

Baker said he knows the new job will take time and some effort on a personal level, but it's nothing he isn't already prepared for.

"I view myself as a learning president in this model," he said. "There are a lot of things I can learn from a lot of people."

Andrew Lightman can be reached at andrew.lightman@cnc.com