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Big Isle inventor
sets pace for aspiring
Hawaiian engineers

Earl Bakken's share of a
major award will fund a
scholarship-tuition program

---

By Harold Morse
Star-Bulletin

Hawaiian students who want to be engineers will get help -- thanks to Earl Bakken's development of the modern pacemaker.

Bakken, now a Big Island resident, and a colleague gave the world the modern pacemaker for heart patients and have been selected for a major award for that contribution. Bakken developed a transistorized, battery-powered pacemaker in 1957.

Bakken and Wilson Greatbatch of Akron, N.Y., will receive the first-ever Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize and $500,000 for their invention, and Bakken's share will go to help aspiring young Hawaiian engineers.

One of the engineering profession's highest honors, the award will be presented at a dinner Feb. 20 by the National Academy of Engineering.

Bakken, 77, active in promoting Hawaiian cultural events and other civic undertakings, has been a Big Island resident for the past decade.

"It was 10 years ago that we moved into our present house," he said. "I think we need to promote as much as we can of Hawaiian culture."

He has a Hawaiian organization in mind to administer the scholarship-tuition program for aspiring engineers who have any amount of Hawaiian blood.

How many students benefit each year will depend on that organization, he said. "It depends on how they cut it up."

For example, maybe four or five students will start receiving full tuition in the 2001-2002 academic year.

"I would certainly hope there to be one or more (benefiting students) this coming fall. But I'm not putting any stipulation on that."

Bakken co-founded Medtronic, one of the world's leading developers and manufacturers of therapeutic medical devices, including the pacemaker, with world headquarters in Minneapolis.

Bakken served as Medtronic's chief executive officer, board chairman and, later, senior board chairman until his retirement as an officer in April 1989. He remains active in the company's business.