Known as the "Father of Obesity Surgergy," Dr. Edward Eaton Mason was born on October 16, 1920, in Boise, Idaho. His father, Edward Files Mason, was a professor of photojournalism at the University of Iowa. His mother, Dora Eaton Mason, was a teacher and scupltor.

After graduating from Iowa City's City High in 1939, he received his BA and MD degrees at the University of Iowa. He trained in surgery at the University of Minnesota and, in 1953, he returned to Iowa as an Assistant Professor. Mason would spend the rest of his career at the University of Iowa, where he also served as acting Head of the Department of Surgery from 1981-1982.

Mason introduced gastric bypass surgery as a means of treating obesity in 1966 and invented the first vertcial banded gastroplasty in 1980. Throughout his career, Mason was involved in the development of bariatric surgery and non-surgial means of trating obesity and type-II diabetes. He founded the American Society for Bariatric surgery and served as its first president in 1983.

In 1944, Mason married Dordana Fairman, a dietician at UI. The couple had four children - Daniel, Richard, Charles, and RoseMary Mason. Source: "Dr. Edward E. Mason Obituary." Lensing Funeral & Creamation Service. Retrieved 2024 July 30.