Dr. Joel Baker Sr. (1905 -1999), born in Shenandoah, Virginia, earned his medical degree from University of Virginia and moved to Seattle in 1930, where he joined the Virginia Mason Hospital Mason Clinic team. Baker served as chief of surgery at Virginia Mason for three decades before retiring at age 65. During his career, Dr. Baker invented a method of draining intestinal obstruction without surgery, and a surgical technique that averted the need for colostomies in some cases. After his retirement, he headed such groups as the Seattle Foundation, Seattle Golf Club, the Pacific Coast Surgical Society and the American College of Surgeons.

In this interview, Dr. Baker talks about his early life in Virginia, about Dr. Mason and the Mason Clinic, and Virginia Mason Hospital.

Interview conducted by Dr. John Huff on August 6 and 19, 1985. This interview is part of the Donald Schmechel Oral History Collection. Don Schmechel, who was a member of the Seattle Public Library Foundation board, began this project with Seattle Public Library in 1984, with the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) brought on board as a partner in early 1985. Schmechel himself worked to raise the funding for the project, and volunteered his time to manage the project, and to conduct interviews along with a crew of volunteers. Originally titled the Videotaping Historic Figures (VHF) Program, the project interviewed 91 people, and MOHAI holds the interviews for 32 of these individuals.