Archives West Finding Aid

Russel L. Baker was born in Gaston, Oregon in the early 20th century, although the exact year is currently unknown. He studied medicine first at the University of Oregon Medical School where he completed internships at Multnomah County Hospital and Doernbecher Memorial Hospital for Children. This was followed by education at the Harvard Graduate School where he worked for the Boston City and Massachusetts General Hospitals prior to World War II. During the war, he served on the medical staff of the 7th General Hospital in the United Kingdom as well as the Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.

Following the war, Dr. Baker served on the faculty of the UOMS Hematology and Neurology Departments as Clinical Associate for 23 years. He specialized in neurology, studying and writing about Hodgkin's disease and arteriosclerosis. Perhaps most well-known in the medical community for his knowledge of the muscular disease myasthenia gravis, he was appointed as Medical Director of the Myasthenia Gravis Clinic at Good Samaritan Hospital in 1964, the first clinic in the Pacific Northwest dedicated to treating the disease. Dr. Baker was also involved in organizational leadership, serving on the board of the Multnomah County Medical Society and Oregon Physicians' Service. According to an article about him in the Fall 1969 edition of the Oregon Physicians' Newsletter, he was also very skilled on the golf course.

Dr. Baker's death date is also currently unknown.

[Biographical information sources, located in the archives' Biographical Files:

Oregon Physicians' Service. "Scalpel, Gavel and Putter- Each Effective for Dr. Baker." Physicians' Newsletter, Fall 1969.

"First Northwest Clinic To Treat Rare Muscle Disease Opens at Good Samaritan Hospital." The Oregonian, Monday August 3, 1964.]