John Nelson Baldwin, MD
1934 — 2020
Dr. John N. Baldwin passed away peacefully at his home in Twain Harte.
John was born in New York City and lived his early years in Pelham Manor in Westchester County. John attended local public schools and graduated Dartmouth College 1955 and entered Cornell Medical School. He completed his internship at New York Hospital and residency at the University of California, San Francisco, in heart and chest surgery.
In 1967, Dr. Baldwin was drafted and served as a major in the Army Medical Corps at Fort Ord (CA). It was at the 24th Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh, Vietnam, where John’s greatest achievement was crowned: having the privilege of operating on nearly two thousand American soldiers. He received the Bronze Star. He settled in Carmel, rising in his profession to become Chief of Surgery at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula and a key partner in what became the premier vascular and general surgical practice on the Central Coast. Vietnam was also where John met the love of his life, 1st Lt. Gloria Jean Mitchell, a combat nurse from Waco, Texas. They retired to Twain Harte in 1990.
John is past president of the UCSF Surgical Society and a diplomate of the American College of Surgeons. He was chief consultant to the 7th Infantry Division at Fort Ord for 20 years, and for 12 years was the American College of Surgeons’ consultant to the White House. He was past-president Sonora Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 391 and served as a board member of the Sonora Regional Medical Center, where he founded its Tumor Board in 1992. John was a founding member of the Twain Harte Times and a contributing editor to the Sierra Mountain Times.
John enjoyed skiing at Dodge Ridge, fishing and hiking and all of the beauty and splendor of the Sierras.
John is survived by his family: wife, Jean; daughters Nancy (Albert Wagner), of St. Paul, Minnesota, Cynthia (Jeffrey Luchtefeld), of Overland Park, Kansas; sons John Jr. (Karen Vaughn), of Albany, and William, of Sonora; and six grandchildren.