Irwin Eskind was born in Nashville, TN on January 25, 1925. He was educated in the Nashville public schools and received his B.A. and M.D. degrees from Vanderbilt University in 1945 and 1948.

From Vanderbilt, Eskind went to Boston City Hospital, completing a residency in internal medicine in 1951. He spent a third year in residency at Vanderbilt, studying internal medicine under Drs. Hugh Morgan and Rudolph H. Kampmeier. After serving two years in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, Dr. Eskind spent another year in Boston at the Lahey Clinic as a fellow in gastroenterology.

In 1954 Dr. Eskind returned to Nashville to establish a private practice in internal medicine, and he was also a member of the medical staffs of Vanderbilt and St. Thomas Hospitals. Dr. Eskind and his wife Annette have been longtime supporters of the Vanderbilt Medical Center and the Nashville community. Dr. Eskind served as a member of the Medical Center Board for over twenty years. The biomedical library, completed in 1994, and comprehensive diabetes center, opened in 2005, both of which bear their names, attest to Dr. and Mrs. Eskind's dedication to Vanderbilt.