One day during the 1930s when Earl Bakken was a nine-year-old kid growing
up in Columbia Heights, Minn., he went to see the movie Frankenstein. For
Bakken it was a thrilling experience. “I said, ‘That's what I want
to do—bring people back to life with electricity,’” Bakken remembered.
It's probably safe to say that thousands of young boys back then were dazzled by the cinematic bolts of electricity that reanimated the clumsily stitched-together monster played by Boris Karloff. But only one of them—Bakken—grew up to found a whole industry on the idea.
In 1949, only a year after graduating from the University with a degree in electrical engineering, Bakken co-founded Medtronic in a northeast Minneapolis garage. In 1957 he worked with the University to invent the world's first reliable cardiac pacemaker, the groundbreaking device that produces electric impulses to regulate the rhythm of a flagging heart.
Today, Medtronic has 34,000 employees worldwide and produces a mind-boggling range of devices designed, in the words of its founder, to “rebuild people to be…normal.” From defibrillators and implantable insulin pumps to stimulation devices for the brain and muscles to pacemakers that govern medical problems as diverse as incontinence and obesity, there's hardly an organ of the body that is beyond the help of a Medtronic device. Every six seconds someone somewhere in the world receives a Medtronic implant.
Through the years Bakken has remained famously loyal to the University that helped give him his start. Now a resident of Hawaii, he returns several times a year to visit the University and confer with administrators and researchers. “I still love getting together…,” he said.
One event that always brings him back to Minnesota is Medtronic's annual convocation of some of the company's living success stories.
“In December we bring in six patients who have our devices,” he explained. “They come with their doctors. The doctors tell why the devices were implanted, and the patients talk about the difference the devices have made in their lives.” The meeting, which is broadcast to Medtronic's employees around the globe, is an opportunity for them to “see the difference that their work has made.”
Bakken values Medtronic's historically close relationship with the University. “Working with the U has created many of our products over the years,” he said.
He also maintained friendships with faculty, including the late Otto H. Schmitt, professor of physics and electrical engineering, whom he describes as a “great leader and thinker” who helped train many of Medtronic's future leaders.
Bakken's connection to the University's Institute of Technology stretches back to the years right after World War II, when he studied electrical engineering. “I had good teachers in electrical engineering,” he recalled.
He also noted tongue-in-cheek that the Institute of Technology might have had a previously undisclosed role in jump-starting his entrepreneurial career.
In graduate school Bakken indulged his love of mathematics by taking three courses in the discipline simultaneously. “Then I got into advanced thermodynamics in physics. That threw me, kinda.” He paused. “So I dropped out [of grad school] and started Medtronic.”
Bakken has more than recovered from his status as a grad school dropout. To date, four institutions, including the University, have awarded him honorary doctorates. His record of service to Minnesota and to his adopted state of Hawaii has earned him numerous honors, including the Outstanding Achievement Award, the University of Minnesota's highest alumni award. His list of professional honors is a virtual catalog of awards in the fields of engineering, health, business, and philanthropy.
At 82, Bakken is quick to point out that he's “still working” on projects ranging from the support of environmental research on the “Big Island” of Hawaii to the development of innovative healing techniques that partner sophisticated medical technology with traditional “high touch” healing methods like massage and acupuncture. He has helped the North Hawaii Community Hospital grow into a showcase for what he calls “blended medicine.”
“Most hospitals are warehouses for sick bodies,” he said. “This hospital is built for patients.”
Bakken's focus remains resolutely on the future. In the mid-1970s he founded the Bakken Library and Museum in Minneapolis to share with a younger generation his fascination with electricity. In the 1980s he helped launch the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting, located in St. Louis Park, Minn. Both museums share the goal of fostering interest in engineering as a career.
“We need so many engineers,” Bakken said. “We're getting short of them in the U.S. Other countries are beating us in training engineers. The Bakken and the Pavek train a lot of kids. We hope we can get some of them to [attend] the University.”
Bakken also remains interested in new areas of research at the University. Regents Professor Lanny Schmidt of the chemical engineering and materials science department, an expert on renewable energy resources, said that on a recent trip to the Minneapolis campus Bakken called to ask if he could visit Schmidt's lab.
Schmidt was impressed with Bakken's enthusiasm for renewable energy and his support for developing alternative energy sources near his home in Hawaii. “He's a fantastic fellow,” Schmidt added.
Ironically, Bakken may have achieved an even more personal understanding of the importance of his life's work in recent years. “I have Medtronic stents in my heart and an implanted insulin pump. I keep going only because of Medtronic,” he quips.
When asked to sum up the deepest satisfaction of his long life, he doesn't hesitate: “What could be better work than knowing that you're restoring someone as a whole person in body, mind, and spirit?”
