Earl Bakken

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Earl Bakken
Bakken Museum
Engineering career

Earl Elmer Bakken (January 10, 1924 – October 21, 2018) was an American engineer, businessman and philanthropist of Dutch and

artificial pacemaker in 1957.[1][2]

Early life and education

Bakken was born on January 10, 1924, in Columbia Heights, Minnesota and was of Norwegian ancestry. Bakken had a long-held fascination with electricity and electronics. A self-described "nerd", Bakken designed a rudimentary electroshock weapon in school to fend off bullies. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1948 from the University of Minnesota. His electrical engineering education continued, and he obtained a Master's degree with a minor in mathematics, also from the University of Minnesota.[1]

As a boy, Bakken was inspired by the combination of electricity with medicine in Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, and the subsequent 1931 film version starring Boris Karloff was a direct inspiration for his future work, including his improvements to the pacemaker (the first to be battery-powered and wearable) and founding Medtronic. Bakken later founded a museum about medical science and electricity in Minneapolis, The Bakken, which features an extensive Frankenstein display.[3]

Career

Post-World War II hospitals were just starting to employ electronic equipment, but did not have staff to maintain and repair them. Sensing an opportunity, with his brother-in-law,

Palmer Hermundslie
, he formed Medtronic (a portmanteau of "medical" and "electronic") in a small garage, primarily working with the University of Minnesota hospital.

In the 1950s, Dr.

medical devices until 1976.)[4]

Over the next several years, Bakken and Medtronic worked with other doctors to develop fully implantable pacemakers, but they also veered toward bankruptcy. He borrowed money that kept Medtronic going, but the bankruptcy near-miss drove Bakken to develop the Medtronic Mission, which still guides the company.[5] The mission helped the young company to stay focused on areas where it could truly help patients.

Bakken retired from Medtronic in 1989 and moved to a 9-acre estate in the Kona District of Hawaii he called Bakken Hale,[6] but still returned to the company several times a year to meet new employees and explain the Medtronic Mission to them in person.

In 1996 he helped to dedicate the North Hawaii Community Hospital and was active there for some time afterward, working to combine Eastern and Western approaches to medicine to develop a more

holistic approach to health care.[7]

In 2001, Medtronic started the construction of its new European distribution center in Heerlen, The Netherlands. The street on which the facility was built is named after Bakken.

Bakken died at his Hawaii home on October 21, 2018, at the age of 94.[8]

See also

  • Bakken Museum

References

  1. ^
    PMC 6655043
    .
  2. ^ Hebrew University of Jerusalem Institute of Chemistry: Earl E. Bakken Archived 2007-12-05 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ISBN 978-1-68554-027-2
    . Retrieved 2023-06-02.
  4. ISBN 978-3-319-19464-6
    .
  5. ^ Medtronic's Patient-Focussed Mission medtronic.com
  6. ^ Mykleseth, Kathryn (2015-01-07). "Supersize solar setup underway on Big Isle". Honolulu Star Advertiser. Oahu Publications d.b.a. Staradvertiser.com. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  7. ^ "Ability Magazine: Earl Bakken Interview with Chet Cooper" (2009)". Retrieved 2012-04-03.
  8. ^ Medtronic founder Earl Bakken Has Died at His Home In Hawaii

Bibliography

External links

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