1929-1994, inclusive

Personal name, Baker, Benjamin M.

Benjamin M. Baker, Jr.
20 Nov 1901- 14 Jul 2003
Benjamin M. Baker, Jr., was born in Norfolk, Virginia. He received his B.S. in 1922 from the University of Virginia and his M.A. in 1925 from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes scholar from 1922 to 1925. He earned his M.D. in 1927 from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. After spending four years at the Johns Hopkins Hospital as an intern and then resident, he joined the faculty of the School of Medicine in 1931. Baker served in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army during World War II and in 1945 acted as chief consultant in medicine for the U.S. Armed Forces in the Pacific area, leading a team that studied the use of atabrine as a malaria prophylactic. Upon his return to Baltimore after the war, Baker became chairman of the Private Ward Committee at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was appointed professor of medicine in 1965. Baker studied coronary artery disease and pioneered the use of the ballistocardiogram in the diagnosis and evaluation of heart disease. He also helped to organize a long-term national study relating diet to heart disease, and in later years he directed research that resulted in new techniques for the early diagnosis and treatment of colon cancer. Baker received numerous honors throughout his career, including the Legion of Merit for his service during World War II and the Medical Alumni Service Award from the Johns Hopkins University in 1983. In recognition of the many years of service that he and his colleague Louis Hamman devoted to the general medicine clinic at Johns Hopkins, the facility was named in their honor in 1975.

Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1927-1951

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1928-2003

2024-028

2018-038

2015-030

1991-011

1990-104

1983-042