Robert Karp, MD

Reminiscence
Robert B. Karp, 1934-2006

Family and friends were stunned to learn of the sudden death of Dr. and Mrs. Robert Karp (Soni and Bob) in an automobile accident in Chateauroux, France in the evening of May 18th. Bob was a worldclass fly fisherman, and traveled around the world seeking out the best fishing areas. He planned this trip to explore the trout streams in the Pyrenees, and since his wife Soni was not such an avid fisherman, it seems as if they took a side trip to the Loire Valley at the end of the fishing trip The details of the accident are missing, but Chateauroux is 200 miles southeast of Paris in the Loire Valley.

Dr. Robert. B. Karp was an “old school” classically trained cardiac surgeon. Born in Beverly Hills, his father was VicePresident for Production at Paramount Studios. Bob shunned the Hollywood lifestyle, but when you could get him to comment on his exposure to the Hollywood crowd, he reminisced about coming home at night to find his father playing cards with such luminaries as Jack Benny, Groucho Marx and Bob Hope in the family living room. His undergraduate work was at Stanford University, and his medical school education was at the University of California, San Francisco from whence he graduated in 1958. He took his General Surgery training at UCLA from 1958 to 1966, with two years of that time spent as a general medical officer as a Captain in the US Army from 1960 until 1962. Much of that time was spent in Germany, and was a much enjoyed tour of duty for both Soni and Bob. After he finished the general surgery requirement, he spent a research year in the Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF, Dr. Karp went to the University of Alabama for his training in Cardiovascularthoracic Surgery, a very thoughtful decision since one of the world’s great cardiac surgeons and teachers, Dr. John Kirklin, had just left the Mayo Clinic to go to Birmingham. The impact of Dr. Karp on cardiac surgery grew exponentially as a result of his time spent in Birmingham with Kirklin for several reasons. Although Bob Karp was a brilliant analytical thinker, his already superb intellect was further burnished by his exposure to Kirklin.  In addition, while in Birmingham, through a series of timely and fortuitous circumstances, he was brought together with several of the best young surgeons in the country who had gathered under the tutelage of Kirklin and this group strengthened each other and initiated one of the strongest academic programs in cardiac surgery in the country. Three of those surgeons, Dr. Karp, Dr Nicholas Kouchoukos and Dr. Al Pacifico remained on the faculty in Birmingham following their fellowship and made important contributions to the development of cardiac surgery in those pioneering days. Dr. Karp was promoted to Professor of Surgery in 1978 after he had achieved international stature as a clinical surgeon, investigator and teacher. He was an excellent author. In 1972 he authored, with Kirklin, of a wonderful book on Tetralogy of Fallot that was a classic in itself. He was a coauthor with Kouchoukos, Blackstone, Doty, and Hanley of a new edition of the Kirklin/BarrattBoyes textbook “Cardiac Surgery”.

In 1983, Dr. Karp came to the University of Chicago as Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Cardiac Surgery Division. He initiated a heart transplant program, which has evolved at present into the largest program in Illinois. One of Dr. Karp’s heart transplant patients from Birmingham responded to he announcement of his death with condolences, and informed the family that she was operated on in 1982 and is still doing well. He was one of a relatively few surgeons who was equally at home in the field of congenital heart surgery as well as surgery for acquired heart disease. He was a wonderful teacher, and a patient and understanding assistant as he helped residents through difficult cases, often for their first time. He assembled a monumental library of all the classical papers in the field, archived and cataloged them, and had them assembled for instant reference.

Perhaps the feature of Bob Karp that I appreciated the most was his integrity, and his enduring honesty. He was a very personal man, not given to socializing, and certainly not prone to small talk. This part of his personality reminded me of Robert Gross in many ways, and both men were often misunderstood by casual acquaintances. Their demeanor could be interpreted as arrogance, or unfriendliness in situations where in fact they may have really not meant it to be so. Neither individual really cared very much if they were misinterpreted, and made little effort to be “popular” in the social sense. This characteristic seems so refreshing in this era of politically correct speech and behavior, and we will miss this kind of person more and more in the future.

His marriage to Soni Karp had a magical element to it. They were high school sweethearts, and Bob was the football hero, quarterback of the Beverly Hills High School team. Bob rejected completely the Hollywood scene, in no small way because his father wanted him to do something else. After several years of marriage, Soni and Bob divorced. Their twins, Andrew and Gillian stayed with Soni, but they had shared experiences with both parents throughout the long divorce of 16 years. After one family social occasion, they realized that the divorce had been a mistake, and they were remarried in 1983. At the time of their death they had been married a second time for 23 years. Soni was a beautiful woman, with an effervescent charm that made her presence fun, and despite her Hollywood background she was thoughtful and wise.  One of my wife’s favorite stories was a remark to her by the owner of one of Chicago’s best restaurants to the effect that Dr. Karp was in the restaurant recently with his “trophy wife”.

I am sure that we often overreact to the deaths of leaders in any field, too frequently lamenting the loss of an irreplaceable member of society. That is not the case with Bob Karp. He truly was unique; not as well known or appreciated generally as his mentor, John Kirklin, but in my opinion Bob Karp had every bit the intellectual power of Kirklin. We miss both of them.

Robert L. Replogle, MD
Chicago, IL, USA