November 30, 2007

In memoriam:
Mortimer J. Buckley, MD

Mortimer J. Buckley, MD, (left) who served as chief of the MGH Cardiac Surgery Unit from 1970 to 1998, died Nov. 24 following a valiant fight against multiple myeloma. During his nearly 30-year career as chief of Cardiac Surgery, Buckley enjoyed a distinguished career as professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and recipient of the American Heart Association's prestigious Paul Dudley White Award.

Buckley was a true pioneer in the clinical field of cardiac surgery. Among his many significant career accomplishments was the development and clinical application with W. Gerald Austen, MD, of the intra-aortic balloon pump, a contribution that made cardiac surgery a safer procedure worldwide. In addition to his work in coronary artery disease and valvular heart disease, he developed critical techniques to correct congenital heart defects in children. He was one of the first surgeons
to apply deep hypothermia during cardiovascular surgery on infants, allowing for complete correction of complex defects for the first time.

"We will deeply miss Mort," says Dr. Austen, surgeon-in-chief emeritus, former MGPO chief executive officer and Buckley's personal friend. "His legacy to the MGH and the field of cardiac surgery resides with the talent and expertise he instilled in the hundreds of surgical residents he taught in the extraordinarily successful cardiac surgical residency program he established at the MGH. Not only was he a master surgeon, but he was also an admired and respected clinical investigator and incomparable teacher to many who today are professors and chiefs of their own programs in cardiac surgery."

Buckley was born July 1, 1932 and raised in Worcester, Mass. He was a graduate of The College of the Holy Cross and Boston University School of Medicine, which honored him with their Distinguished Alumnus award. He is survived by his beloved wife of 45 years, Marilyn (Scully), his four children, Kathleen Buckley, MD, and her husband, Thomas J. Gill III, MD, medical director of MGH Sports Medicine; Deirdre Clark and her husband Robert L. (Rufus) Clark; Kara Buckley and her husband Karl Zachar; Mortimer (Tim) J. Buckley III and his wife, Elizabeth Norris; and Buckley's 10 grandchildren.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 am Dec. 1 at Christ the King Parish located on the Commons in Mashpee, Mass.