VON BAEYER, ERIC (5 January 1909-2 February 1990) was a prominent physician who established the department of radiology at FAIRVIEW PARK HOSPITAL.
Born in Munich, Germany, Eric von Baeyer was raised in a family of noble pedigree that was committed to the pursuit of scientific knowledge. His grandfather, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1905 and his father, Hans Ritter von Baeyer, was professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Heidelberg in southwestern Germany. Von Baeyer completed his undergraduate education at the Humanistic Gymnasium in Heidelberg and pursued a medical education at the universities of Heidelberg, Munich, and Berlin. After he earned his M.D. degree in 1932, von Baeyer studied radiology in Cologne and Hamburg. He immigrated to the United States in 1938.
Settling in Cleveland, von Baeyer completed his training in radiology at the Cleveland City Hospital and at the Cleveland UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS. In 1941, he established the diagnostic and therapeutic radiology department at the Fairview Park Hospital. He went on to serve as director of radiology at Fairview for four decades and as senior radiologist in his later years. A highly respected radiologist, von Baeyer served as president of the Cleveland Radiological Society in 1957 and became a fellow in the American College of Radiology in 1968.
Throughout his long life in Cleveland, Eric von Baeyer evinced a strong interest in the arts. On top of his professional accolades, he was an excellent painter and an accomplished cellist. During his medical training days in Cleveland, von Baeyer supplemented the family income by painting portraits. The von Baeyer home was regularly filled with the enchanting sounds of chamber music courtesy of von Baeyer on cello and his musician friends from the CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA. He was one of the founding members of the CLEVELAND CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY in 1949.
Eric von Baeyer was married twice. His first wife, Annemarie von Baeyer (19 October 1909-17 September 1970), had two children by previous marriage, Thomas W. Delfs and Barbara Delfs von Baeyer. Eric and Annemarie von Baeyer had two sons together, Matthew von Baeyer (30 September 1937-22 November 2006) and Christopher Jacob von Baeyer (b. 1 October 1941). In the late 1980s, von Baeyer married his longtime companion, Ruth Hirshman, but they did not have any children.