Dr. Carl J. Vyborny was never satisfied with the status quo. As a child he supplemented his education by reading the encyclopedia. After earning a doctorate in medical physics, he enrolled in medical school. And although he worked as an attending radiologist at La Grange Memorial Hospital, he also taught at the University of Chicago as a clinical professor of radiology.
“He managed to juggle 50 balls in the air at the same time, keeping them all in order and never dropping one,” said Dr. Michael Racenstein, president of the Chicago Radiological Society. “He accomplished more in his short life than many do in a full life.”
Dr. Vyborny, 53, died of lung cancer Saturday, March 20, in his Riverside home.
Born in Oak Park to a truck-dispatcher father and bank-teller mother, Dr. Vyborny graduated from Chicago’s Brother Rice High School in 1968. He received a bachelor’s degree in physics and math at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a master’s degree in physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a PhD and a medical degree at the University of Chicago.
“He was a lifelong learner,” said his sister, Kathleen. “At one time, actually, he threatened to go to law school after medical school.”
But Dr. Vyborny stayed in medicine and continued his zest for learning by investigating the use of computers for mammograms and helping develop software to diagnose mammograms, Racenstein said.
He helped set the guidelines for accrediting mammogram-imaging centers in 1985 and has authored more than 100 academic articles on radiology, said University of Chicago radiology professor Maryellen Giger.
“Because he had this unique combination of being an outstanding scientist, educator and clinician, he was able to see the big picture and was a visionary in connecting the academic research to ultimate use in private practice,” Giger said.
Dr. Vyborny was named a fellow of the Society of Breast Imaging in 1992, the American College of Radiology in 1994 and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine in 1999. In February he received the Chicago Radiological Society’s distinguished service award.
Interested in astronomy since he was a child, Dr. Vyborny often scheduled his international medical meetings to coincide with astronomical events and has seen two total eclipses, one in Aruba and one in Germany, said his wife Terrieann, whom he married in 1975.
He did not teach his young daughter to read, thinking she would learn in school, but filled dozens of notebooks with math puzzles and problems for her.
“He didn’t believe in teaching reading, but he was having her do math when she was 2 years old,” his wife said.
Dr. Vyborny was fascinated with genealogy and traced his family line back to the 1600s, in what is now the Czech Republic, his wife said.
Dr. Vyborny also is survived by his mother, Praxedes, and another sister, Susan Blyskal.
Visitation will be from 3 to 9 p.m. Monday at Hallowell & James Funeral Home, 1025 W. 55th St., Countryside. Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Mary’s Church, 126 Herrick Rd., Riverside.
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