Frank Aram Oski

Oski, a director of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins, was born in Philadelphia. He received his B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1954 and his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1958.

After completing a two-year fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Oski returned to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1963 as an associate in pediatrics and in 1969 was promoted to associate professor of pediatrics. In 1972, he joined the medical school faculty at the State University of New York at Syracuse as chairman in the department of pediatrics.

Oski gained notoriety for his book Don’t Drink the Milk, in which he attacked the belief that cow’s milk is good for children. As a strong proponent of breastfeeding, he also denounced health insurance plans that denied new mothers enough time in the hospital after delivery to effectively begin breastfeeding their babies. He emphasized the benefits of breast-feeding during the first three months of life to reduce the infant’s risk of disease.

Oski came to Johns Hopkins in 1985 as chairman of the Department of Pediatrics. He was known as an expert in children’s blood disorders and nutrition, and a social activist. He published extensively, served on the editorial board of several pediatric journals, and was senior editor of Principles and Practice of Pediatrics. He received numerous national honors, including the 1972 Mead Johnson Award for Pediatrics and the 1990 St. Geme Award for pediatric leadership from the Federation of Pediatric Organizations.

In 1996, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He served as editor of Contemporary Pediatrics, a journal he founded, and on the editorial board of The European Journal of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology.