Michael Hoke

Who was Michael Hoke?

Michael Hoke was a leading orthopedic surgeon who pioneered the advance of the science for disabled children throughout the United States.

The son of American Civil War Maj. Gen. Robert F. Hoke, Michael Hoke was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was a nephew of Robert Van Wyck, the first Mayor of New York City after the consolidation of the five boroughs in 1898.

He was involved in the founding of the first Scottish Rite Children's Hospital in Decatur, Georgia. He served as one of five orthopedic consultants in the development of Shriners' Children's Hospitals across the United States. He served on the Alfred I. DuPont Institute for Crippled Children in Wilmington, Delaware.

In 1931, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Hoke as the Medical Director of the Institution for the Treatment of Infantile Paralysis in Warm Springs, Georgia.