The intracellular pathways by which the binding of growth hormone (GH) to its receptor elicits its diverse effects have eluded investigators for many years. Studies showing that GH rapidly stimulates tyrosyl phosphorylation of cellular proteins, and that tyrosine kinase activity co-purifies with GH-GH receptor complexes, led us to hypothesize that activation by GH of a receptor-associated tyrosine kinase is an important early, and perhaps, initiating step in signal transduction by GH. Here, we review the work identifying JAK2 as a GH receptor-associated tyrosine kinase that is rapidly activated by ligand binding.