Dr. Peer M. Portner, Fellow of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, died on February 9, after a long and heroic struggle with cancer. He is survived by his wife, Dorothy, who serves as a Trustee of the School, and by his daughters Catherine and Karen and their families.
In 1979 Peer founded Novacor Medical Corporation, where he served as president and CEO. He directed a multidisciplinary team in the development of the Novacor Heart Assist System, an electronically powered artificial heart system, for patients with terminal heart failure. Critical evaluation of Peer’s system began at Stanford University in 1984, resulting in the world’s first successful bridge to transplant. The clinical utilization of his system has rapidly grown worldwide, with more than 100 leading medical centers in over 20 countries having performed nearly 1800 implants. In 1994, his system was utilized in the world’s first permanent implant at Cambridge University.
A colleague of Dr. Portner at Stanford University has said of Peer that he was unequaled in his field. A world authority in mechanically assisted circulation and a pioneer in the field of artificial organs, in 1988, Dr. Portner was awarded the Hans Selye Medal for his contributions to medical science in Czechoslovakia, and was later given the Dr. Barney Clark Award from the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs, the Hastings Lecture, and the Bücherl Award of the European Society for Artificial Organs. He served as President of the International Federation for Artificial Organs and the American Society for Artificial Organs, and was a founding fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
In and beyond all of his prodigious accomplishments, Peer’s life was marked by magnanimity, a greatness of spirit which moved him to quietly make a place for others, as our Lord commands us, especially the poor in our midst. Dorothy recalls Peer, after a long and arduous winter day at a conference in New York, returning to his room to order dinners for the homeless people he had seen warming themselves by the grates in the sidewalk outside the hotel, then, adding an extra hour to his day, he would wait until the dinners were prepared so that he might deliver them personally.
Peer freely offered the hospitality of his home to generations of young Dominican brothers and priests. We will remember him as a colleague, a benefactor and, most of all, as a friend of the Order and of the School.
A scholarship fund in Dr. Portner’s name has been established at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology. Memorial contributions to the scholarship fund may be mailed to DSPT, 2301 Vine Street, Berkeley, CA 94708.
