Dr. Wyngaarden took undergraduate courses at WMU during WWII in the Navy's V-7 program. He received his medical degree from the University of Michigan in 1948.
He was a professor and headed the department of medicine at both the University of Pennsylvania and Duke University. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan appointed him director of the National Institutes of Health.
He was elected to the National Academy of Science and holds honorary doctoral degrees from six colleges and universities.