Ruth Morris Bakwin

Ruth Morris Bakwin (1898 – July 31, 1985) was a noted pediatrician and child psychologist and the first woman intern at the Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York City (now the New York Medical College). Bakwin and her husband, also a pediatrician, were long associated with New York University School of Medicine.

Ruth Morris Bakwin
Born
Ruth Morris

1898
Chicago, Illinois
DiedJuly 31, 1985(1985-07-31) (aged 86–87)
Kodiak, Alaska
RelativesHarry Bakwin (husband)
Helen Swift Morris (mother)
Edward Morris (father)
Gustavus Swift (grandfather)
Muriel Gardiner (sister)
Medical career
FieldPediatrics
InstitutionsNYU School of Medicine

Biography

Bakwin was born in Chicago in 1898. Her parents were both scions of prominent families involved in the meat-packing industry in Chicago: Edward Morris, son of the founder of Morris & Company, Nelson Morris; and Helen Swift Morris, daughter of Gustavus Swift, founder of Swift & Co.[1] Bakwin was educated at Wellesley College and Cornell University Medical School.[2] While at Cornell, Bakwin started a fund to assist students at the school with financial need.[3]

In 1925 Ruth and Harry Bakwin married in Paris. Harry was also a pediatrician, and he had been one of the first physicians to diagnose a patient with autism. While the Bakwins were in postgraduate training in Europe, where most people drank beer at the end of the day, they instead took up art appreciation. On a return visit to Europe in the late 1920s, they purchased Vincent van Gogh's 1890 version of L'Arlésienne. The Bakwins befriended several well-known artists, including Diego Rivera and Chaim Soutine.[4] Ruth Bakwin studied with Anna Freud in Vienna.[1]

Bakwin was a member of the Department of Pediatrics at the New York University Medical School from 1930 until her death. She was also Director of Pediatric Services at the New York Infirmary from 1936 to 1954 and was elected a member of its Board in 1961, and then became a trustee after the Infirmary merged with Beekman Hospital (now the New York Downtown Hospital) in 1979. With her husband, she co-authored several textbooks including the highly regarded Clinical Management of Behavior Disorders in Children (1968).[5]

In 1950 she received the Elizabeth Blackwell Award for her distinguished career in pediatrics from the New York Infirmary. In 1983 she won the Alumnae Achievement Award at Wellesley College.[6]

Personal life and death

She and her husband had four children: Edward Bakwin, Michael Bakwin, Barbara Bakwin Rosenthal, and Patricia Bakwin Selch.[2] While on vacation in 1985 in Kodiak, Alaska, Bakwin died of a heart attack. She was predeceased by her husband in 1973. In 2006 Bakwin's son Edward sold L'Arlésienne by Vincent van Gogh at Christie's in New York for $40.3 million.[7]

References
  1. "Dr. Ruth M. Bakwin, New York pediatrician". Chicago Tribune. August 3, 1985. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  2. "Dr. Ruth Bakwin dies; professor of pediatrics". The New York Times. August 2, 1985. Retrieved December 3, 2013.
  3. "Finding aid to the Ruth Morris Bakwin, MD (1898-1985) Papers" (PDF). Weill Cornell Medicine. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  4. Sheets, Hilarie M. (April 22, 2006). "Parting with the family van Gogh". The New York Times. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  5. Ogilvie, Marilyn; Harvey, Joy (2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century, Volume 1. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-92038-8.
  6. "Ruth Morris Bakwin '19". Wellesley College. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  7. Vogel, Carol (May 3, 2006). "A famous face, and now an auction star". The New York Times. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
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