George C. Kaiser, M.D.: 1929-2020
Maggie Rotermund
Senior Media Relations Specialist
maggie.rotermund@slu.edu
314-977-8018
Reserved for members of the media.
07/07/2020
George C. Kaiser, M.D., professor emeritus, founder and former chair of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, died July 1, 2020. He was 91.
Kaiser was a member of the team who performed the first heart transplant in the Midwest on Feb. 8, 1972.
According to a story in the March-April 1972 edition of Saint Louis University Magazine, the eight-member team had been on the brink of performing the operation several times, but timing and a variety of other factors kept SLU physicians from the surgery.
Vallee L. Willman, M.D., chair of the department of surgery in 1972, said at the time that while he coordinated the team, it was Kaiser who did much of the actual work of the operation.
The SLU transplant team also included Hendrick Barner, M.D., then associate professor of surgery; John F. Schweiss, M.D., director of anesthesia and professor of surgery; J. Gerald Mudd, M.D., assistant professor of internal medicine; John E. Codd, M.D., associate professor of surgery; Richard Whiting, M.D., assistant professor of internal medicine; and Kenneth Nachtnebel, M.D., and Russell R. Kraeger, M.D., both surgical residents.
Kaiser was born in New York and raised in New Jersey. He attended Lehigh University and graduated in 1949 after three years of study. He graduated in 1953 from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and did his residency in general surgery and thoracic surgery at Indiana University. His first academic position was at Indiana.
He joined the faculty at SLU School of Medicine in 1963 and distinguished himself in the ensuing 35 years. During his tenure at SLU, Kaiser served as chief of surgery at the Veterans Administration Hospital; director of the Perfusion Technology School; chief of cardiac surgery at St. Mary’s Health Center; and chief of cardiothoracic surgery at SLU. He continued to perform cardiothoracic surgeries until age 70.
Kaiser served as president of the St. Louis Thoracic Surgical Society, the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. He was the principal investigator of federally-funded research programs, served on the editorial board of several medical journals, and authored more than 200 publications during his career.
The Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery established the George C. Kaiser Lectureship in 1998 and a nursing education fund was also named for him.
Kaiser is survived by his wife of 10 years, Lois Kaiser; children Dr. Barbara Joslin Kaiser, Charles C. Kaiser, Jr., and Lt. Col. (ret.) James Haggart Kaiser; and eight grandchildren. His wife of 50 years, Jane Haggart Kaiser, preceded him in death in 2004. The couple met at Johns Hopkins, while he was a medical student and she was a student nurse.
The family will hold a memorial on a future date to be determined. As there will be no immediate service, those who wish to honor Dr. Kaiser’s memory may do so through a donation to the Saint Louis University School of Medicine or to the George C. Kaiser Lectureship Fund; c/o Keith Naunheim, Dept. of Surgery, 1008 S. Spring Ave., St Louis, MO 63110.