1. Levi Watkins was known to be a determined, passionate, and caring individual.
21 Facts About Levi Watkins
1. 2.
Levi Watkins used this compassion to fuel his movement for minorities within the medical field.
3.
Levi Watkins grew up with five siblings: two brothers, James Watkins and Donald V Watkins Sr.
4.
Levi Watkins was the valedictorian of his class at Alabama State Laboratory High School.
5.
Levi Watkins was motivated to seek a career in the medical field by a Biology professor at Tennessee State University.
6.
Levi Watkins graduated from Tennessee State University with a degree in Biology.
7.
Levi Watkins learned of his acceptance through a newspaper article about him in Nashville.
8.
Levi Watkins was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Mu, and Beta Kappa Chi.
9.
Levi Watkins began his medical residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1971.
10.
Two years after his research on angiotensin blockers at Harvard, Levi Watkins returned to Johns Hopkins and joined the admissions department in 1979.
11.
Levi Watkins used this time to enhance techniques for open heart surgery, many of which are still used today.
12.
Levi Watkins was named a professor of cardiac surgery in 1991, and concurrently held the post of Associate Dean of the School of Medicine until his retirement in 2013.
13.
Levi Watkins's siblings requested that Watkins perform the surgery, as they knew he was an exceptional cardiac surgeon.
14.
Levi Watkins left Johns Hopkins in 1973 for Harvard University where he researched the use of angiotensin blockers in cases of congestive heart failure until 1975.
15.
The research work that Levi Watkins completed during those two years at Harvard contributed to the safety and efficiency of the drug.
16.
Levi Watkins was eight years old when he met King, who served as the family's pastor.
17.
In 1955, when Levi Watkins was only 11 years old, he took part in the Montgomery bus boycott that took place after the bus incident with Rosa Parks.
18.
Levi Watkins worked closely with King, serving as a volunteer driver for the civil rights leader.
19.
Levi Watkins improved conditions at the school so much that between the years of 1978 and 1983, the school's population of African American students increased 5-fold.
20.
Levi Watkins died in Baltimore on April 11,2015, at the age of 70, due to a heart attack and subsequent stroke.
21.
Levi Watkins contributed to the advancement of surgical techniques and to the defibrillator, which are all still used today.