Dr. Melvin E. Jenkins (b. 1922) was a pediatrician as well as professor. He graduated from Sumner High School as Valedictorian in 1940 and received both his B.A. and M.D. from the University of Kansas (1944, 1946). He worked for the Howard University Hospital, an Air Force Hospital at Nagoya, Japan, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the University of Nebraska School of Medicine before settling at Howard again for the remainder of his career. While at Howard, Jenkins acted as professor and chair of their Department of Pediatrics and Child Health. He retired from Howard in 1986. Jenkins also was involved in a number of organizations including the American Pediatrics Examiners (where he was an examiner and on the board of directors), the National Medical Association's pediatric section, and the Washington, DC chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics; he was on the executive committees of the latter two organizations. His research specialty was in Sickle Cell disease. Jenkins was the first African American Pediatric Endocrinologist in the world and established the first Pediatric Endocrine Clinics at Howard. An endowed lectureship was founded at Howard in 1996 in his name.

Jenkins was born on June 24, 1923 to Melvin E. Sr. and Marguerite Jenkins. He married Elizabeth, a nurse, in 1949. The union produced four children, Janis, Carol, Lore, and Ingrid, before Elizabeth passed away in 1974. Jenkins later wed Maria P. Beckles in 1975. Beckles is an economist whose publications include the 1991 Child Health in the Inner-City IV.