Charles William Cummings

Cummings, director emeritus of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, was born in Boston. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1957 and his M.D. from the University of Virginia in 1961. Cummings interned at Dartmouth and completed a year of general surgery residency at the University of Virginia. He entered the Air Force in 1963, was discharged in July 1965, and entered residency at the Harvard Medical School Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, finishing the program in 1968.

Cummings started a private practice in Boston and served on the clinical staff at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. At the end of 1975, he moved to Syracuse to become an associate professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University.

In 1978, Cummings assumed chairmanship of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Washington. In 1990, he became director of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Johns Hopkins, a title he held until 2003.

Cummings has written over 125 scientific papers and is the senior editor of the four volume text Cummings Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. He has also co-authored two surgical atlases, one on laryngeal surgery and another on surgical access and reconstruction in the field of laryngology and head and neck surgery.

He served as a director of the American Board of Otolaryngology, as chairman of the Residency Review Committee and chairman of the Advisory Council for Otolaryngology to the American College of Surgeons. He was chief of staff of The Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1997 through 1999 and serves on the board of directors of Johns Hopkins Medicine. He is a past president of the American Association for Academic Departments of Otolaryngology, American Broncho-Esophagological Association, the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, and the American Society for Head and Neck Surgery.

Cummings was made a Distinguished Service Professor at Johns Hopkins, and has served as a consultant for Johns Hopkins Medicine International.