Dr. Drake received his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in Oklahoma City. He was drafted into the U.S. Army and stationed at the 8055 Mobile Army Surgical Hospital unit in South Korea, where he met First Lt. Margaret Catherine McDonough, an army nurse who would become his wife of 65 years.
After the war, Dr. Drake joined St. Mary’s Hospital in Evansville, Ind., now St. Vincent’s Evansville, where he was named chief of anesthesia. About 15 years after the war, he and his wife visited Richard Hornberger, MD, a thoracic surgeon who also served in the 8055 MASH Unit. Dr. Hornberger began compiling fictionalized accounts of the unit members’ experiences, which was published under his pen name Richard Hooker as M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. The book was followed by a 1970 film and television series that ran from 1972 to 1983 on CBS.
Dr. Drake served as chairman of the anesthesia department at St. Vincent’s Evansville and was an instructor at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. He was a member of the American Medical Association, American Society of Anesthesiologists, Vanderburgh County Medical Society and the Evansville Kennel Club.
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