Dr. W. Gerald Austen, famed heart surgeon from Akron, dies at 92
Dr. W. Gerald Austen, a renowned cardiac and thoracic surgeon from Akron, has died in Boston at age 92.
Austen was a heart surgery pioneer in New England and served as president of the American Heart Association. He was chairman of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the namesake of the Austen BioInnovation Institute as well as an endowed chair in polymer science and engineering at the University of Akron.
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Surrounded by family, he passed away Sunday at Massachusetts General Hospital, the prestigious institution where he helped revolutionize heart care.
“We have lost a giant of a man and the most wonderful friend,” said Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO of the Knight Foundation.
Although Austen moved from Akron at a young age and lived most of his life in New England, he maintained strong ties to Summit County. Well into his 80s, he visited Akron every other month.
“My closest personal friends are the people I grew up with,” Austen once told the Beacon Journal. “Akron was a great place to grow up and is still one of my favorite places.”
From Arnstein to Austen
William Gerald Austen was born Jan. 20, 1930, at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron and grew up on Delaware Avenue in the Merriman Hills neighborhood.
His father was Karl Arnstein, the vice president of engineering at Goodyear, whose responsibilities included building the Akron Airdock, designing the U.S. dirigibles in Akron and Macon, and overseeing the company’s switch from rigid airships to blimps. His mother, Bertl, taught German and French at the University of Akron, earned the Presidential Medal from UA and served as an officer with Weathervane Playhouse and the Akron Art Museum.
Jerry, as he was known to family and friends, was the youngest of four children. His sisters Renee and Suzanne were born in Germany while his brother Frank was born in Akron.
Austen attended King Elementary in Akron, Anglicized his surname during World War II and graduated in 1947 from Western Reserve Academy in Hudson. He received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1951, but switched to medicine “because it seemed like it would be fun and worthwhile to treat and help people.”
The Ohio native earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1955 and completed his residencies in general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He sharpened his training at King’s College Hospital in London, the General Infirmary in Leeds, England, and the National Heart Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
In 1961, he married Patricia Ramsdell of Worcester, Massachusetts. The couple raised four children: Karl, Jay, Christopher and Elizabeth.
Surgical chief at Massachusetts General
At age 39 in 1969, Austen was appointed chief of surgical services for Massachusetts General, a position he maintained for nearly 30 years. He also served as professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School.
Colleagues hailed him as an unparalleled leader in modern medicine, the most important physician at Massachusetts General in the late 20th century and a wonderful surgeon who was loved by his patients. Regarded as a pioneer in the treatment of coronary artery disease, he helped develop circulatory support systems to aid failing hearts.
In 1977, he was elected president of the American Heart Association. During a talk that year in Akron, Austen stressed the importance of preventive medicine for good health.
“Recognizing the risk factors in your life and avoiding them is the best treatment,” he said.
The risk factors, in descending order of importance, were smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, inactivity, stress and diet, he said.
“There is no question that smoking is very, very bad for the heart and is the leading cause of heart disease,” Austen told the audience.
“People who smoke one pack a day are twice as likely to have a heart attack as those who don’t smoke and five times as likely to have a stroke. But within a year of quitting, an ex-smoker will have the same statistical chances for good health as nonsmokers.”
He also served as president of such groups as the American Surgical Association, the American College of Surgeons, the Association for Academic Surgery, the Society of University Surgeons and the American Association for Thoracic Surgery.
In New England, he was a founding trustee of Partners HealthCare System and served as president and CEO of Massachusetts General Physicians Organization. As co-chairman since 1980 of the Massachusetts General Philanthropy program, he helped raise $3 billion for the hospital. On his 90th birthday, Massachusetts General named a building for him.
Famous patients include Henry Kissinger
Among Austen’s famous patients were Hollywood star John Wayne, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, nightly news anchor David Brinkley, Beacon Journal Editor John S. Knight and his publishing brother James L. Knight.
Austen wrote four textbooks, more than 50 chapters and more than 400 articles about cardiac surgery.
He received an honorary degree from the University of Akron and joined the president’s advisory board. In 2011, the Summit County Historical Society named Austen in its inaugural class of Summit Award recipients.
During a 2016 address before the Akron Roundtable, Austen said he lived by the philosophy of his parents:
Get as much education as possible.
Push the brain you have to its maximum potential.
Be honorable.
Work harder than anyone else because the harder you work, the more luck you will have.
Measure your success by how colleagues view you, not by how much money you have.
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Leader of Knight Foundation
Austen served on the Knight Foundation board of trustees for 24 years and was board chairman for 14 years, retiring in 2010 at age 80. He maintained the title of chairman emeritus.
“Jerry was Jack and Jim Knight’s doctor,” Knight Foundation President Ibargüen explained in a prepared statement. “His care of Jack Knight during a medical crisis deepened the relationship and they became close friends. The Knights invited Jerry to join the board of the foundation, and he went on to oversee the transition from leadership by its founders to professional management as an independent entity — a transition that, thanks to Jerry, happened with minimal stress.”
The Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron, a local collaboration to advance medical innovation, was named for him. The foundation kickstarted the institute in 2008 with a $20 million grant.
In 2016, the foundation gave $3 million to the University of Akron to create an endowment in Austen’s name for polymer science and engineering. The endowment, the university’s largest, was created “for the city and continuing support for excellence at the university and to honor a truly great man who has strong ties to Akron.”
“It’s a great legacy and very humbling to have an endowed chair bear my name,” Austen said at the time.
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Ibargüen, the former Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald publisher who became president of the Knight Foundation in 2005, said he never had “a more simultaneously supportive and demanding supervisor” than Austen.
“There wasn’t a conversation with him that I didn’t come away from better,” he noted. “He would listen with care and then say, to me and others, ‘We’re on the same page. I just have a few questions,’ and then go on to make much better whatever had just been presented to him. That was Jerry’s wise and collaborative technique: He’d ask questions, and get to a better answer. He brought us all up to his standard.”
Ibargüen hailed Austen as a champion for the Akron Art Museum, Akron public spaces, downtown development and the University of Akron.
Austen had planned to speak at the trustees meeting last weekend in Akron, Ibargüen said. He was so devoted to the city “that when he was hospitalized and unable to join us, he called to make sure I’d give his regards to everyone in Ohio,” Ibargüen noted. “It was the last time we spoke.”
Austen always said that Akron had “a very special place in the heart of the foundation.”
Obviously, the city held a special place in his heart as well.
Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Dr. W. Gerald Austen, famed heart surgeon and Akron native, dies at 92
