Levi Watkins Jr., pioneer in cardiac surgery and civil rights, dies at 70

Dear Colleagues,
It is with immense sadness that we must inform you that Levi Watkins Jr., a pioneer in both cardiac surgery and civil rights who implanted the first automatic heart defibrillator in a patient and was instrumental in recruiting minority students to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, died on Saturday, April 11, in The Johns Hopkins Hospital of complications from a stroke. He was 70.

Dr. Watkins retired in 2013 after serving as an exemplary surgeon and inspirational leader for 43 years. He remained as powerful a presence and as important an influence on Johns Hopkins as he was when he arrived here in 1970 as a general surgery intern. Johns Hopkins was a great institution then—but it is a far, far better place now: more diverse, more innovative, more connected to the community that surrounds us, more welcoming. We have Levi Watkins to thank for a lot of those changes.

From his earliest days at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Watkins played a pivotal part in changing the institution's role in medical education. In 1975, at the request of the newly appointed school of medicine dean, Richard Ross, Watkins and a fellow African-American faculty colleague, ophthalmologist Earl Kidwell, a 1973 school of medicine graduate, launched a concerted nationwide drive to recruit talented minority students who were interested in studying medicine. Within a few years, Johns Hopkins was attracting black students from all over the nation who were convinced by Watkins that Johns Hopkins wanted them. The success of the Johns Hopkins minority recruitment campaign soon made it a model imitated by other medical schools.

In 1980, Dr. Watkins gained renown for implanting the first automatic heart defibrillator in a patient suffering from repeated, life-threating episodes of ventricular fibrillation, or irregular heartbeats. Such a procedure now is commonplace, saving untold lives annually.

In 1983, he was appointed to the medical school's admissions board, and the recruitment, retention and graduation rates for minorities steadily climbed. Each year, Dr. Watkins hosted a reception for black students, house staff and faculty, which grew from 10 or so attendees in the 1970s to more than 100 by the mid-1990s. That progress continues today, with underrepresented minority enrollment in the school of medicine on the rise. It is one of Levi Watkins' most vital legacies. 

In 1991, Dr. Watkins was promoted to full professor of cardiac surgery and vice dean for postdoctoral programs and faculty development. He would have an immense impact on postdoctoral education in the country by establishing the nation's first postdoctoral association at Johns Hopkins, another pioneering effort that has been emulated elsewhere.

We are so glad that Levi was present last January 9 when we presided over the official unveiling of his oil portrait during Johns Hopkins' 33rd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration event, which had been founded by Watkins in 1982, and which he continued to host every year. He died just a week after the portrait was formally installed in the Division of Cardiac Surgery.

Lisa Cooper, director of the Johns Hopkins Center to Eliminate Cardiovascular Health Disparities and a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" recipient, is among the many leading physicians whom Watkins mentored. Others include Selwyn Vickers, who in 2013 became the first African-American senior vice president and dean of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, and James E.K. Hildreth, renowned for his important research on HIV and AIDS. Hildreth now is dean of the College of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Davis.

Dr. Watkins received honorary degrees from Morgan State University, Spelman College, Meharry Medical College and Sojourner-Douglass College. His life and work were featured on a 1993 Public Television Systems' The New Explorers program episode entitled "A Dream Fulfilled," and three years later again on Maryland Public Television. In 2013, the American Heart Association established the Watkins-Saunders Award, recognizing excellence in medical and community work focused on diminishing health care disparities in Maryland and named in honor of Watkins and University of Maryland cardiologist Elijah Saunders, who died on April 6 of cancer at the age of 80. Lisa Cooper was the first recipient of the award.

In 2006, Dr. Watkins' then 35-year career at Johns Hopkins was celebrated with a mammoth reception. At that celebration, Watkins recalled: "I came up when color was everything." Gazing at the diverse crowd gathered to applaud him, he said, "But looking out at all of you today, I don't see color at all."

It is inarguable that Levi Watkins' impact on our hospital and school of medicine—on their culture, on their care—will endure, just as will our immense admiration for him and thanks for all that he did here.

Sincerely,

Paul B. Rothman, M.D.
Dean of the Medical Faculty
CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Ronald R. Peterson
President, The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System
EVP, Johns Hopkins Medicine​