Dr. Harry Fozzard, a professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Chicago, was a leader in the field of electrophysiology, conducting research that centered on the ion channels in the heart that generate rhythm and control cardiac muscle contractions.
Dr. Fozzard, 83, died in his Dana, N.C., home Tuesday, Dec. 9, according to the University of Chicago. The presumed cause of death was an aneurysm, the U. of C. said.
He came to the U. of C. in 1966 as an associate professor of medicine and director of the myocardial infarction research unit. He went on direct the university’s cystic fibrosis research center and led several other research organizations. He retired in 1998.
Dorothy Hanck, a professor of medicine at the U. of C., said Dr. Fozzard “was extremely committed to a set of questions he wanted to know the answers to.”
Hanck said that as a practicing physician, Dr. Fozzard could always see how questions raised and researched conducted in the lab could pay dividends in clinical practice.
Dr. Fozzard was the editor-in-chief of the journal Circulation Research and on the board of several other journals. He sat on the board of directors for the American Heart Association.
His research was funded by the National Institutes of Health for more than 40 years, and he secured from that federal agency the U. of C.’s first grant for cardiovascular sciences training.
Dr. Fozzard was born April 22, 1931, in Jacksonville, Fla.He attended Washington and Lee University for three years and, in 1952, started his medical education at the Washington University School of Medicine, the U. of C. said.
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Dr. Fozzard completed an internship in internal medicine at Yale University and then two years of duty in the Marine Corps. He did his residency at Washington University’s Barnes Hospital, a cardiology fellowship at Washington University and a cardiac electrophysiology fellowship at the University of Bern.
It was at the fellowship in Bern that Dr. Fozzard developed a computer system that monitored abnormal heart rhythm.
After his retirement, Dr. Fozzard and his wife, Lyn Lane Fozzard, moved to her North Carolina hometown, where he started volunteering at a free clinic and helped the Environmental and Conservation Organization there.
He was on the advisory board for the Melvin R. Lane Fund, which was named after his wife’s father. The fund gives money to organizations that have shown an ability to promote access to quality health care.
“This was a passion dear to his heart; he was truly the architect of it,” his wife said.
His hobbies included “scherenschnitte,” an intricate art form that involves meticulously cutting silhouettes out of paper.
In addition to his wife, Dr. Fozzard is survived by two sons, Richard and Peter; a brother, George; and four grandchildren.