In his east Lawrence home, surrounded by various forms of artistic inspiration, including books, paintings and music, Lawrence resident Robert Baker enthusiastically talks about his involvement in the local arts.

Robert Baker is a man not easily forgotten.

He’s the one in front of a classroom sharing words of wisdom from his mythical grandmother to drive home points on household budgeting. He’s also that local musician wearing a suit jacket and fedora while growling out poetry stanzas. Or, he simply could be that guy in Lawrence who looks a little bit like Steve Buscemi and a lot like John Waters.

Whether it is in the classroom, on stage or on the street, Baker’s presence lingers.

A bundle of energy, Baker doesn’t seem to sleep, or at least not more than four hours a night, said Bob Mackey, who is Baker’s boss and executive director of Housing and Credit Counseling Inc.

As director of education for the nonprofit financial counseling organization, Baker has delivered hundreds of presentations over the past few years on financial literacy for the nonprofit organization.

He covers everything from what first-time renters should know to how to survive the recession.

Much of what Baker teaches comes from a common sense approach to budgeting: Don’t spend more than you make.

He often refers to his “mythical grandmother,” who says such things as “education is what you get when you read the fine print, experience is what you get when you don’t” and “It’s not how much money you earn, it’s how you move those zeros around.”

In fact, Baker’s approach to money is very much rooted in his real life grandparents, who immigrated from Italy to America just before the Great Depression. His grandfather was a shoemaker with six children, so thriftiness was a necessity.

Baker’s early childhood was spent in a multi-generational home that had a wine vat in the basement, chickens in the backyard and shelves filled with fruits and vegetables, which were canned with a frenzy during harvest time.

“My attitude toward money was somewhat shaped by that experience,” Baker said. “My grandparents lived through the Depression and still lived that way.”

Baker’s history as an educator is diverse. He’s taught at an inner-city Philadelphia secondary school, an upper crust suburban junior high school and an American Indian reservation near Sioux City, S.D. He’s also worked as a grant writer, community organizer and events promoter.

By the late 1990s, Baker had two little girls and both he and his wife were self-employed. He thought it was time to find more stable work, so he started looking for a job. An opening at HCCI was the first one he found.

“I’ve been there 13 years. It’s the only job I ever had longer than five years,” he said.

But there’s another side of Baker that is far removed from the world of household budgets, credit cards and mortgages.

“Word slinger extraordinaire,” is how former band mate and friend Roger Holden describes Baker.

On stage, Baker’s voice can be angry, ironic and soothing. He has been known to channel Jack Kerouac while reciting “On the Road” in between riffs on the saxophone.

With local filmmaker Mark von Schlemmer, Baker created “Shadow of the Czar,” a music video that hit No. 1 on Neil Young’s anti-war website during the 2008 presidential election.

“He reminds me of a evangelical taxi driver from Philadelphia screaming in your face,” Holden said.

For several years, Baker pulled together a hodgepodge of local artists for a variety show called “Three Minutes or Less.” In three minutes or less, performers would sing, dance or act out small plays. One person filled the slot with a recitation of all the states and presidents. If acts weren’t over in three minutes, “hags” would pull the performers off the stage.

“I would say, more than any other local performer that I can think of, he brought a cabaret-like energy to this community,” Holden said.

“It was the goofiness of it,” Penny Weiner said of why the concept was such a hit.

Recently, Weiner has worked with Baker to write a musical for school children to perform about the environment.

She said that Baker tends to nurture a John Waters image, which isn’t hard to do because there’s a fairly strong resemblance to him and the more well-known actor Steve Buscemi.

“He likes to pay homage (to Waters),” Weiner said. “But (Baker) is just more interesting to me than either of those people.”

While a bit more subtle, Baker’s knack for performing comes through in his other life educating consumers about their finances. He is able to get a classroom of people comfortable with a topic that many would rather not discuss, Mackey said.

In 2010, Baker was named the outstanding individual educator of the year from the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. Staff at HCCI had to persuade Baker to allow them to submit the application. Mackey views it as an example of Baker’s humility.

“Robert is a national standout,” Mackey said. “He’s just the right person for the right time.”