Robert “Bob” Draper Jr., MD, one of Baltimore’s first Black orthopedic surgeons and a former chief resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital, died Aug. 29 after a blood clot traveled to his heart. He was 79.
Dr. Draper earned his medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine before joining Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he began as an intern in 1972 and rose to chief resident of orthopedic surgery in 1976 — the first African American to hold that role, according to a Sept. 4 obituary in The Baltimore Banner.
He went on to specialize in joint replacements and run his own private practice. During his career, he devised a surgery to separate the fingers and toes of children born with webbed hands and feet.
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