Roy H. Clauss (February 8, 1923, in

Melrose Park, Illinois Melrose Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a suburb of Chicago. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 24,796. Melrose Park had long been home to a large Italian-American population. The suburb was the home of ...

– July 7, 2007 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

) was an American pioneering cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon. During his career, Clauss helped develop and perfect a variety of techniques involved in the performance of open heart surgery and cardiac bypass surgery, and helped pioneer bilateral carotid artery surgery. He authored over 150 medical articles. In 1971 he co-authored ''Remedial Arterial Disease'' with the late Dr. Walter Redisch. Clauss and his second wife, Pamela Heavey Clauss, a surgical and heart pump

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, along with Greek surgeon, Dr. George Sanoudos, established the first open heart surgery facility in

Athens, Greece Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

in the mid-1970s.''New York Times'' obituary
July 10, 2007.

Personal Life

Clauss graduated from

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

in 1943 and from its medical school in 1947. Clauss married Jane Hamden of

Oak Park, Illinois Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago. It is the 29th-most populous municipality in Illinois with a population of 54,583 as of the 2020 U.S. Census estimate. Oak Park was first settled in 1835 and later incorporated in ...

in 1945, by whom he had three children. A widower, Clauss married his second wife, Pamela Heavey in 1970; they remained married until her death in 2001. He was a patron of the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic. Clauss was a deacon and elder of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. In 1993, he was one of the founding members of The City Church in Manhattan. He died at the age of 84 in 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clauss, Roy 1923 births 2007 deaths American thoracic surgeons American Presbyterians Northwestern University alumni People from New York City People from Melrose Park, Illinois Feinberg School of Medicine alumni 20th-century surgeons