Harvey Baker was born in 1918 in New York City. He received his medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, and did his internship and residency at Kings Country Hospital in Brooklyn, finishing in 1950. He then served a three-year fellowship at Memorial Hospital.
Harvey served in the Medical Corps of the United States Army from 1944 to 1946. He went into practice in Portland, Oregon, where he was on the staff of the Good Samaritan Hospital and was a consultant to the VA hospital. Harvey was a member of a number of organizations, including the North Pacific Surgical Association and the Society of Surgical Oncology.
With Dr. Robert A. Wise, who was born in 1896, as the first author, Harvey produced an excellent book, “Surgery of the Head and Neck, A Handbook of Operative Surgery”, published by Yearbook Medical Publishers, Chicago, in 1968 with earlier editions in 1958 and 1962.
In addition to numerous other publications, Harvey was one of the authors of a 52 page professional education booklet on oral cancer published by the American Cancer Society in 1973.