Levi Watkins, cardiology pioneer, dies

Dr. Levi Watkins Jr., a noted Johns Hopkins cardiologist, behind-the-scenes political figure and civil rights activist who broke many racial barriers, died Friday from a massive heart attack and stroke, relatives said Saturday.

The 70-year-old Dr. Watkins, the first black chief resident of cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, was known as much for fighting the injustice faced by African-Americans as for his groundbreaking medical work.

"Levi was a son of the South who was birthed in the middle of segregationist America and the middle of a civil rights movement and became somebody who defied the limits of the expectations of him," said former Rep. Kweisi Mfume, who first met Dr. Watkins in the 1980s on a picket line calling for better treatment of African-Americans in the criminal justice system.

Dr. Watkins was outspoken yet humble, those who knew him said. He never took his success for granted and worked tirelessly to help create the next generation of African-American doctors and activists.

He became the first to put an automatic defibrillator in a human heart in 1980 at a time he was also fighting to diversify the medical staff and student ranks at Hopkins.

Dr. Watkins was one of the chief residents in surgery when Dr. Ben Carson, a retired Hopkins neurosurgeon who is now considering a run for president, first came to the medical school. "He was a mentor and subsequently became a great friend. His contributions to cardiac surgery will be legendary. And we will miss him greatly," Dr. Carson said.

The Rev. A.C.D. Vaughn, senior pastor at Sharon Baptist Church in Baltimore, said Dr. Watkins "took a stand everywhere he went. He was very symbolic of the real hope of black people. His life shows if you are willing to do the work, you could achieve what you wanted."

Dr. Watkins was born in Kansas, the third of six children, but grew up in Alabama, where he got his first taste of the civil rights movement. He met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the age of 8 when he and his family attended Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, where Dr. King was the pastor. When he grew older, Dr. Watkins would act as a driver, shuttling the pastor around town. Disheartened by the injustices he saw, Dr. Watkins would later join Dr. King's movement,

He attended Tennessee State University as an undergraduate, studying biology. He then made history at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where he became the first African-American to study and graduate from the school with a medical degree. It was an experience he described over the years as isolating and lonely, but would be the first of many milestones.

After graduating from Vanderbilt, Dr. Watkins started a general surgery residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1971, where he became the first black chief resident of cardiac surgery. He left Baltimore for two years to conduct cardiac research at Harvard Medical School before returning to Johns Hopkins.

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Levi Watkins, cardiology pioneer, dies