Dr. Joel Baker Sr., Surgical Innovator, Dies

Seattle surgeon Joel Baker Sr., whose innovations and care added luster to the name of Virginia Mason Medical Center for more than 30 years, was a true man of medicine.

No patient's concern was trivial; no surgery daunting.

If he had to be away, he sent postcards to anxious patients, reassuring them that they were in good hands with the backup physician.

In the 1950s, he thought up a way to drain an obstructed intestine of toxic matter, where cutting could expose a patient to contamination. Instead, he inserted a long decompression tube.

He also designed a surgical technique that averted the need for colostomies in some cases.

Dr. Baker died last Sunday (July 4) of cardiac arrest. He was 94.

Born in Shenandoah, Va., to a railroad switchman and his wife, he decided early on medicine. As a boy he traveled in a horse-drawn buggy with his physician uncle on calls in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

He earned his medical degree at the University of Virginia at age 24. He came to Seattle in 1930 to join a group of Virginians who had founded the old Mason Clinic. He was sent to observe great surgeons Will Mayo at the Mayo Clinic and Frank Leahy in Boston.

During World War II, he lost a coin toss to serve as a military surgeon. He instead worked overtime with civilian patients in Seattle.

In 1945, when the University of Washington was developing its medical school, he not only declared support for it but also invited UW physicians to treat their patients at Virginia Mason. A hospital did not yet exist at the UW.

For three decades, he served as chief of surgery at Virginia Mason. Dr. Baker retired when he was 65. While head of the clinic, he supported mandatory retirement to make room for the next generation of doctors.

"He felt obliged to abide by this, though he was at the pinnacle of his career," said his son, Dr. Joel Baker Jr. of Burlington, Skagit County. "And having always credited the institution rather than himself with his success, he did not feel he could continue his own separate practice."

In the first five years of his retirement, he headed such groups as the Seattle Foundation, Seattle Golf Club, the Pacific Coast Surgical Society and the American College of Surgeons.

He swam daily and played golf and bridge.

"But after he retired, he was really, in a way, lost," said his son. "He had no hobbies. Surgery was his hobby, his love and his life."

Also surviving are sons Sam Baker of Port Angeles, John Baker of Issaquah and Martin Baker of Vashon Island, and eight grandchildren. His wife of 62 years, Elizabeth Baker, died in 1997.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at Epiphany Church, 38th Avenue and East Denny Way, Seattle.

Donations may go to the church (ZIP: 98122); YMCA of Seattle-King County-Snohomish County, 1118 Fifth Ave., Seattle, WA 98101; or Seattle Foundation, 425 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98101..

Carole Beers' e-mail address is: cbeers@seattletimes.com