Monthly Briefing May 2026

The National Board recently learned of the passing of Paul Baker, an early board member and president from 1995 to 2008.

Paul served in the US Air Force for 24 years, first as a medical corpsman, then senior aeromedical evacuation technician, with subsequent promotions to chief of aeromedical evacuation training and standardization and eventually worldwide aeromedical evacuation system project scientist. He was introduced to hyperbaric medicine while attached to the US Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, Brooks Air Force Base, in San Antonio, Texas, serving alongside such luminaries at Dr’s Jeff Davis and Paul Sheffield, and Tom Workman. He entered the civilian world in 1979, when he joined a new company called International ATMO, founded by Dr. Jeff Davis and his Air Force colleagues. Paul served as technical director and then director of clinical operations for their hyperbaric facilities at Southwest Texas Methodist Hospital and Nix Hospital in San Antonio until his retirement in 2001. 

Paul was omnipresent within the hyperbaric community, as both a member of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Society and its Gulf Coast Chapter, serving two terms as Associates president, and the National Board of Diving & Hyperbaric Medical Technology. His contributions to safe operational practice and related leadership were recognized by the UHMS with the establishment of The Paul C. Baker Award, Paul being its first recipient in 1997.

The National Board recognizes Paul’s long and successful careers in both the US Air Force and civilian hyperbaric medicine and expresses its condolences to his loving family and his many friends and colleagues. His was a life widely admired and highly respected.

Paul Baker 1937-2026

Dick Clarke, President

National Board of Diving & Hyperbaric Medical Technology