Rear Admiral Ray R. Conner and Laura H. Conner Professorship in Pediatrics

Rear Admiral RAY R. CONNER left a substantial bequest to Johns Hopkins for the care of children whose families could not pay their medical bills. He was motivated, he said, by news programs featuring parents forced to beg for financial assistance for their children’s serious medical conditions. Highly decorated for his service during World War II, he was captain of the destroyer Niblack, responsible for the war’s final sinking of an enemy submarine, and the capture of its captain and crew, in the Mediterranean. After the war, he commanded Destroyer Division 32, the officers’ performance branch of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, and the cruiser Bremerton. He went on to serve at the National War College and the Navy’s International Affairs Group in Washington, DC.

He and his wife, LAURA HUNSAKER CONNER, were determined to make an enduring difference in the lives of children. Although unable to have children, they were devoted to their nieces and nephews. The chair that memorializes them is to be held by the director of the Harriet Lane Primary Care Clinic at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.