William C. Roberts, MD, a passionate cardiac pathologist known as one of cardiology’s leading voices, died in June from renal cell carcinoma. He was 90 years old.
Roberts is remembered as one of the single most influential figures in cardiology. He served as chief of pathology at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for 30 years, executive director of the Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute for another 30 years and editor of the American Journal of Cardiology for four years—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg when reviewing his impact on modern medicine.
Barry J. Maron, MD, a cardiologist with the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, wrote a loving tribute to Roberts in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.[1] Maron knew Roberts for 50 years as both a close friend and a colleague.
Maron described Roberts as a “true legend in cardiovascular medicine” and a “cardiac pathologist with single-minded determination and focus.”
“As the chief of pathology at the National Institutes of Health, he developed the unique ability to relate pathological observations to clinical cardiology, and in the process brought cardiology to pathology,” Maron wrote. “This was at the beginning of the open-heart surgical era, and it is not an exaggeration to credit Roberts with establishing a foundation for the pathology of cardiac surgery. Easily forgotten is that before Roberts, pathologists rarely navigated into territory beyond the realm of anatomical findings.”
Roberts also had an “unmatched expertise,” Maron said, which the veteran cardiologist shared at clinical-pathological teaching conferences over the course of his long career.
“These sessions provided trainees with the unique opportunity to examine cardiac anatomy along with insights from Robert–specimen by specimen, often identifying unexpected clinically relevant abnormalities,” Maron wrote.
Roberts contributed to more than 1,600 academic articles in his career and hosted the Williamsburg Conference on Heart Disease in Virginia for 46 years. He also served in a variety of roles for the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA), receiving the ACC’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.
“To say Bill Roberts will be missed is a massive understatement,” Maron concluded.
Click here to read the full tribute in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.