Victor A. McKusick has been called the "father of medical genetics" due his major contributions to the field that have spanned the second half of the twentieth century. From cardiologist, to geneticist, to educator, administrator, and author, McKusick has had an impact on nearly every major milestone in modern genetics. It has been suggested that through his writing and teaching he has probably influenced all geneticists in the world today.

McKusick was born in Maine, one of a pair of identical twins. He was an undergraduate at Tufts College in the early 1940s, and then attended medical school at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he received his M.D. in cardiology in 1946. Between 1946 and 1954, McKusick progressed from resident to instructor in Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, and in 1954, he accepted a faculty appointment at that institution.

Although trained as a cardiologist, McKusick soon became interested in...