PROVO — Dr. Stephen Minton's hands have caressed and cared for thousands of premature babies at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. Now those neonatologist's hands are working to help babies throughout the rural areas of Utah and the world with a special project through Intermountain Healthcare.

Minton thrives on helping infants. His face beams when he talks about the new technologies that allow doctors in rural areas to feed information to medical centers to help expectant moms and premature births. His goal is to help as many preemies and Newborn Intensive Care Units as he can around the world. He has already been doing some work in Honduras.

Looking back at his youth, Minton says it was a no-brainer on what he would grow up to be.

"I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't want to be a doctor, " Minton told the Deseret Morning News. "My pediatrician was a wonderful example."

Minton, 61, was born April 17, 1945, in Maysville, Ky., in the Appalachian Mountains. He was an only child. He recently returned with his mother to the old home, which he remembers as having one central oil heater to heat the whole house.

"It was a little four-room home," Minton said. "The house I was raised in cost $6,000. My mother kept all the receipts."

Minton was raised mostly in Ohio, just outside of Cincinnati. It was there he received 16 varsity letters in high school sports. In fact, he was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame last year for his amazing unbroken record in track.

"My records in track still stand," he said. "I ran the 100 and 220. The records were set in 1962. Sports is my second love."

Minton's first love is his wife, Joni, and their children Mark, Melissa, Michael, Alexandria and Christian. And somewhere between his deep love for his family and his affinity for sports, lies his complete devotion to babies and their families.

Minton's resume reads like a book, with more than 20 pages of information on his accomplishments in the medical industry, the community and in education. His degrees come from the University of Cincinnati and its medical school.

After working at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Minton joined the staff in Provo on Oct. 1, 1979. It was the first non-university NBICU in the nation, according to Minton. He was by himself working in a new field. Now he is the chief of Newborn Services as well as the director of Neonatal LifeFlight.

"When I first started, we lost two babies a day," Minton said. "I got in early (in neonatology); it was a chance to make a major difference."