William Roberts, MD, a "legend in cardiovascular medicine," died at 90 from renal cell carcinoma.
Dr. Roberts was born in 1932 in Georgia and was the son of Stewart Roberts, MD, the first cardiologist in the South, according to an in memoriam piece published in the Journal of American College of Cardiology.
Dr. Roberts was a cardiac pathologist who served as chief of pathology at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for 30 years, then as executive director of Dallas-based Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute for 30 years. He is credited with bringing cardiology to pathology and establishing a foundation for pathology in cardiac surgery.
He also served as editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Cardiology for 40 years — from 1982 to 2022 — and only stepped down when he received his terminal cancer diagnosis at 89. Dr. Roberts died June 15, according to his obituary.