Robert B. Karp, Heart surgeon; father ran Paramount studio; killed in car crash with wife, an interior designer & TV commercial producer
deb...@comcast.net
May 28, 2006
BY ART GOLAB Staff Reporter, Sun Times
Though he grew up in Beverly Hills as the son of a movie studio chief,
Robert B. Karp was not seduced by the glamor of Hollywood.
Instead, he became a surgeon who founded the University of Chicago's
heart transplant program in 1984 and headed the cardiac surgery section
there for 15 years.
"Growing up in Hollywood, I think he was searching for something a
little more grounded," said his son, Chicago attorney Andrew Karp.
"Celebrities didn't turn his head. I don't think he liked all that
stuff."
As a heart surgeon, Dr. Karp was a rare authority in two areas: the
surgical treatment of congenital heart disease in children and complex
heart disease in adults.
Dr. Karp, who also founded one of the first human tissue banks at the
U. of C., died with his wife, Sondra, May 18 in a car crash near the
village of Chateauroux, France, about 100 miles south of Paris. They
both were 72.
"They were a lot of fun and really good people," Gillian Karp said of
her parents. "As one of my friends said, 'They were never boring.' "
Dr. Gerald Aronson said his nephew, Dr. Karp, was a "master craftsman"
in the operating room and relished taking on the most difficult types
of surgery. "He had that wonderful combination of thoughtfulness and
decisiveness that is necessary for a great surgeon," said Aronson.
He also believed in doing his homework. "He kept one entire wall of his
office filled with notebooks on cases and selected studies that met his
level of expertise, and he used them to plan all of his procedures,"
said Dr. Mark Ferguson, professor of surgery at the U. of C.
As a manager, Dr. Karp ran a tight ship. He "knew what he wanted from
colleagues and subordinates and how to make certain that happened,"
said Dr. Bruce Gewertz, chairman of surgery at the U. of C.
But patients, especially the younger ones, saw a different side.
"I just remember him being very kind but straightforward about my
surgery," said Apryl Crosswy, who was 14 when she underwent a heart
transplant performed by Dr. Karp in 1982 at the University of
Alabama-Birmingham.
As Crosswy recovered, at first she was forbidden to wear contact
lenses. "Being a teenage girl and very concerned about my appearance, I
began to cry -- and he let me wear the contacts."
Dr. Karp was born in Los Angeles, where his father, Jack H. Karp, was a
studio executive and later head of Paramount Pictures. His interest in
medicine was encouraged by his mother, Myrtle, a donor to many medical
causes.
He earned a bachelor of science degree from Stanford University in
three years, graduating at age 20 in 1954. His medical degree came from
the University of California- San Francisco in 1958, followed by two
years of surgical residency at the University of California at Los
Angeles and a stint in the Army.
In 1961, while in the Army, he married Sondra Price, who worked as an
interior designer and television commercial producer. They divorced
within two years but were remarried 17 years later.
"His marriage to Soni brought him a vivacious, effervescent and warm
partner, someone who could enhance the humanistic qualities of the
analytical scientist," said Dr. Robert Replogle, who preceded Dr. Karp
as chief of cardiac surgery at the U. of C.
He became a full professor at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and
worked on a team that pioneered heart transplants there.
He left for the U. of C. in 1983 when he was offered the chance to head
a department. "He also wanted to work more with children, and he didn't
have as much opportunity to do that at Birmingham," said his uncle.
A prolific researcher, he published nearly 150 journal articles and
contributed more than 40 chapters to textbooks, while lecturing and
teaching around the world.
He employed the same analytical approach to his nonscientific
interests, like cooking, wine and fishing, areas in which he acquired
"encyclopedic knowledge," his uncle said.
Dr. Karp stepped down as chief of the cardiac unit in 1998 and retired
from the U. of C. two years later. He continued to teach on
humanitarian trips to India and Pakistan, where he conveyed the latest
surgical techniques to doctors there.
To better indulge his interest in fishing and skiing, he moved from
East Lake Shore Drive to Snowmass, Colo., but total relaxation was not
in the cards. He was recruited to serve as interim CEO of the
financially troubled Aspen Valley Hospital in 2004 and led a turnaround
that "pulled the hospital out of a steep dive," according to a local
newspaper.
The Karps are survived by their son and daughter, and two
grandchildren.
A small memorial service is planned for family and close friends in
Aspen on June 24. A larger service in Chicago is being arranged for
October.