Chair, Commission on Cancer, 1975–1979

Harvey Baker, MD, FACS, born in New York City, graduated from Cornell University in 1939 and from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1943. He served his country in the Army Medical Corps in the South Pacific from 1944 to 1946 and then completed his internship and residency at the King’s Country Hospital in Brooklyn in 1950, after which he spent three years in fellowship training at Memorial Hospital. He moved to Portland, OR, in 1953 and took up his surgical practice at Good Samaritan Hospital. He also was an instructor at Oregon Health Sciences University and assistant chief of surgery at the Veterans Hospital. He was a founder and director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland.

His contributions to leadership and the medical literature were many and significant. He was President of the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) from 1977 to 1978, President of the American Head and Neck Society in 1971, Chair of the Commission on Cancer (CoC) from 1975 to 1979, and an honorary lifetime member of the Board of Directors of the Oregon Division of the American Cancer Society. Dr. Baker was also a member of the American Joint Committee on Cancer full committee from 1977 to 1991 and he chaired the Head and Neck Site Committee for several years. He made his leadership about the need for quality and integrity in cancer surgery. In his SSO Presidential Address, he called out the role of surgical oncologists as practitioners, scientists, teachers, and mentors so that the learnings in the specialty would have greater reach than with the individual patient. Dr. Baker co-authored with Dr. Robert A. Wise three editions of a book entitled Surgery of the Head and Neck: A Handbook of Operative Surgery and he was also co-author of an American Cancer Society professional education booklet on oral cancer.

During his time as Chair, the CoC remained steadfastly committed to the founder’s vision of multidisciplinary participation, which was expanded to include medical oncology and the translation of new knowledge from basic clinical research into clinical practice. By this time, there were 16 lay and professional organizations involved with the CoC and in just one year’s time, the Committee on Approvals typically completed 300 on-site surveys and 300 on-site consultative visits. The Committee on Education developed postgraduate courses in cancer for the fall and spring meetings of the American College of Surgeons, while the Committee on Field Liaison with 600 physicians was active in promoting the development of new programs and assisted in needed improvements in the existing programs. Lastly, the Committee on Patient Care and Research was active in developing criteria for cancer patient care.

To operate with Dr. Baker was to know that he was swift and sure with the knife, with an unwavering and precise knowledge of head and neck surgical anatomy. A man of few words, he was more a man of action and leadership, ready and willing to serve to advance the care of the patient with cancer.