Dr. Ben Carson is a Baltimore icon.

He rose from a disadvantaged childhood to become the director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital where he has performed thousands of intricate surgeries including the first separation of Siamese twins joined at the back of the head. He has authored several books including his autobiography “Gifted Hands,” which was recently made into a movie. And he has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor granted to a civilian. He accomplished all of this and more while he and his wife, Candy, raised three boys — Murray, 25; Benjamin Jr., 23; and Rhoeyce, 22.

We caught up with Dr. Carson recently to ask him about fatherhood: What lessons on parenting he took from the single mother who raised him with little education of her own, how he found time in his busy schedule to parent his boys, and what a brilliant brain surgeon has learned from being a dad.

Q. You credit much of your success to your mother. Did you follow in her footsteps in how you went about parenting your sons?

Yes, most definitely, in the sense that there was not a lot of television and there was a lot of reading and a lot of family discussions in our home. I never let (my children) wallow in pity or feel like victims. Those were the key ingredients (in my home growing up). My mother made it clear that if you wanted something, you needed to work for it.

Q. How were you able to make time for your family while balancing such a demanding career?

That was probably one of the most challenging things. I always say, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” If you really want to do it, you will do it – even though you are doing 500 operations a year, traveling all over and doing a million other things.

I discovered that if I required people to provide for my family where ever I went, they would, and it worked out beautifully. My three boys, my mother, my wife and I went all over the world. My boys even had frequent flier miles. It was great. We spent a lot of time together. Otherwise, they would have grown up not knowing who I was. I would have been a phantom to them. It was not a big problem when they were small. In middle and high school, we would just take weekends or take a day off of school.

We also made a point of always taking family vacations every year. We went to different places like Zion National Park, various resorts, Europe vacations and Egypt.

Q. Your mother raised you and your brother alone. How did that effect the role you, as a father, took in your boys lives?

I obviously wanted to make sure they didn’t have to face that. They have a strong father figure in their lives and know what a father should be — someone to provide all the support the family needs; financial, emotional, set an example and also provide the fun times. It is also very important, since I had three sons, that they see how you are suppose to treat your wife. Boys tend to model what they see.

Q. Since your boys had a more privileged childhood, did you expect more of them?

Not necessarily. In fact, I frequently tell them that I think they were more disadvantaged than I was. They grew up never needing anything. They knew nothing of hardship. We even tried to create hardships to toughen them up. I believe that’s important. If they wanted something, they had to work for it. If they didn’t have certain things done they had to do, there were consequences.

They need to learn to not be willing to give up in the face of adversity. Sometimes people growing up in a privileged environment don’t get that. I am probably one of the few voices out there who says that a disadvantaged life is not necessarily a disadvantage.

Q. Do you think it was intimidating for your sons to have such a successful man as a father? Where are they now and what are they doing?

Yes, I’m sure it had an effect because everyone has such huge expectations. You can’t be normal. My middle son went to college and told everyone his name was Sol (his middle name was Solomon) because he was Ben Carson. But it didn’t take long before everyone figured out who he was.

I always made it clear that the only thing I wanted from them was to be successful and productive members of society. What they went into didn’t matter to me. I think on their own they concluded that I worked too hard, so they all decided to go into something else. Murray is an engineer with Lockheed Martin, B.J. is a wealth management advisor with Warner Co. and Rhoeyce is an accountant with Rolls Accounting Firm. They all live locally.

Q. What is the most important lesson you learned as a father?

You have to demonstrate the life lessons you want to teach your children. You can’t just preach. Kids have a built-in hypocrisy antennae. As soon as you say one thing and do something else, it comes out and blocks what you have to say.

The other thing is that all parents worry about their kids, but those early years are your best time to impart values and principles in them. If you wait until the teenage years, it’s too late.

And let me make one societal comment. I think fathers are incredibly important for the development of well-rounded children — boys and girls. I do have a little disagreement with the forces of political correctness that say they aren’t important. By the same token, fathers themselves need to recognize when they have created a baby, they have a responsibility. Don’t just leave it with the girl and say it was just a good time.