Obituary

John “Jack” Collins, MD, Heart Transplant Pioneer, 76

Jack Collins, Lawrence Cohn and team perform BWH’s first heart transplant Feb. 2, 1984.

John J. “Jack” Collins Jr., MD, BWH’s long-time chief of Cardiac Surgery who performed the first heart transplant operation in New England, died Saturday, March 6, 2010. He was 76.

“He was a giant in cardiac surgery, a gifted surgeon and teacher and devoted family man,” said Michael J. Zinner, MD, chief of Surgery.

Husband of Mary H. Collins, MD, of Marion, he was born in Thomasville, Georgia, to the late Dr. John Collins, Sr., and Frances Ryan Collins. He attended Duke University and graduated from St. Louis University Medical School before coming to Boston to complete his surgery residency at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. He served as BWH’s chief of Cardiac Surgery from 1970 to 1987, and he also served as a vice chair of Surgery for BWH.

“He was a real gentleman, very much loved by all his colleagues at BWH,” said R. Morton “Chip” Bolman, III, MD, chief of Cardiac Surgery. “Surgeons, nurses, PAs, perfusionists—everyone speaks very highly of him.”

Dr. Collins was remembered by his colleagues as a dedicated and encouraging mentor. “He was very supportive, both academically and clinically,” said surgeon Lawrence Cohn, MD, who served as chief of Cardiac Surgery from 1987 to 2006.

“He loved his work at the Brigham and all the people he worked with,” said his son, John Collins, III, MD, an emergency medicine physician at Tufts Medical Center.

Dr. Collins led a BWH surgery team in completing the first heart transplant in New England in 1984, at a time when very few medical centers across the country were performing such operations. “We were out there alone,” Dr. Collins said in 1999.

His son recalled Dr. Collins’ pride and confidence in performing that historic surgery. “A lot of people cautioned him against doing it,” he said. “But that Playmate cooler made him smile,” he said of the enduring image of the red cooler with his father and the transplant team, which included Cohn.

“Thanks to Jack’s commitment and foresight, we now have one of the oldest and best programs in the country,” Cohn said.

Prior to joining the Brigham, Dr. Collins served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps at the U.S. Navy Submarine Medical Research Laboratory in New London, Conn. In addition to his extensive contributions to the treatment of coronary artery disease, coronary artery bypass surgery, valve surgery and cardiac transplantation, Dr. Collins launched an international exchange in 1978 when he began annual visits with a surgical team from the Brigham to China to perform surgeries and teach. In 1985, he was named honorary professor at the People’s Liberation Army Military Hospital in Beijing, China.

He is a past president of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation. He also served as chairman of the Medical Devices Committee for the American College of Cardiology and was a member of the U.S. Information Agency Medical Science Advisory Committee. For more than 10 years, he served as an editor of the Year Book of Cardiology.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by four children, Anne C. Goodyear of Arlington, VA; Maureen C. Beekley of St. Louis, MO; John J. Collins III, of Cambridge; and Robert R. Collins of Houston, Texas; and two grandchildren.

A funeral service was held from the George F. Doherty & Sons Funeral Home in Wellesley, and additional services and interment followed in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Thomasville, GA.

The BWH Department of Surgery held a memorial service in honor of Dr. Collins in May at the Memorial Church, Harvard Yard, followed by a reception at the Loeb House at 17 Quincy St., Cambridge.

Contributions in his memory may be directed to: John J. Collins Jr., MD, Cardiothoracic Surgeon Scholar Award Fund, c/o Michael Zinner, MD, Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 75 Francis St., Boston, MA 02115.