A tribute to William C. Roberts, MD
Key takeaways:
- William C. Roberts, MD, a distinguished cardiovascular pathologist and mentor, died June 15.
- Roberts posthumously received the Joseph Stokes III, MD Award in honor of his life and career.
Former Healio | Cardiology Today Editorial Board Member William C. Roberts, MD, MACC, a leading cardiovascular pathologist and longtime editor of two leading medical journals, died June 15 at his home in Dallas.
Roberts, a physician at Baylor University Medical Center and former longtime director of the Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute, served as editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Cardiology for 40 years and as editor-in-chief of Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings for 29 years. Among many honors, he received three awards from the American College of Cardiology during his career, according to his obituary: the Gifted Teacher Award in 1978, the Master designation in 2004 and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.
Roberts posthumously received the Joseph Stokes III, MD Award at the 2023 American Society for Preventive Cardiology Congress on CVD Prevention in honor of his life and career. The award is presented to those who demonstrated a lifetime of achievement in preventive cardiology.
Roberts’ son, Charles Roberts, MD, medical director of cardiovascular research and education at Baylor University Medical Center, accepted the award on his behalf.
“He loved the bicuspid aortic valve and I believe he may be the first person to show a person their heart,” Roberts said during the award presentation. “When someone was to undergo a heart transplant, he would call the family and discuss the disease with the family, in a preventive way, to help them understand what their relative had. He would go over the heart, and it was an emotional experience for the patient and their family. He did that for about 200 families.
“One of his legacies may be looking at the coronary arteries in a segmented way and making the case that atherosclerosis was a diffuse disease that should be treated systemically,” Charles Roberts said.
Presenting the award, Barry A. Franklin, PhD, director of preventive cardiology and cardiac rehabilitation at Beaumont Health in Royal Oak, Michigan, and professor of internal medicine at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, called Roberts a longtime colleague and friend who “elevated the field of preventive cardiology to far greater heights.”
Roberts was also well known for his many thoughtful handwritten notes, as well as carefully editing any submitted manuscripts to the journals he oversaw by hand — what he would jokingly call “the WCR copy,” Franklin said.
“And yes, he rejected a few of my papers,” Franklin said. “I have many of Bill Roberts’ handwritten notes. I saved them. When I have a bad day, I go back and look at something Bill Roberts wrote to me years ago.”
Roberts was perhaps most famous for championing the role of cholesterol in atherosclerotic CVD, Franklin said.
“He went on to say, the only absolute unequivocal independent atherosclerotic risk factor is an elevated serum total or elevated LDL cholesterol,” Franklin said. “He coined the ‘rule of 40’ — by reducing your total cholesterol by 40 points, you could cut your risk for a heart attack in half.”
Roberts was also a prolific writer. He wrote or co-wrote more than 1,700 papers and wrote or edited 34 books, including his periodic editions of Facts and Ideas from Anywhere. He organized the Williamsburg Conference on Heart Disease for 50 years, where Franklin often lectured.
“Although many of our best teachers in cardiology are no longer with us, their candles continue to light the candles of others, through their writing, speaking and the students they touch over the years,” Franklin said. “In the current era of information access and exchange, Bill Roberts probably had no idea of the vast number of candles that he lit over the years. I was one of them.
“A few months ago, I called him one night to express my concern about his cancer, which had spread, and see how he was doing,” Franklin said. “He cut me off, rather abruptly. ‘Barry,’ he said, ‘Don’t feel sorry for me. I am the luckiest guy that ever lived. I have a great family and I love what I did, for far more years than most. I traveled the world and had extraordinary opportunities to make a difference.’ And he certainly did.”
According to his obituary, Roberts was married to the late Carey Cansler Roberts and is survived by four children, 11 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Reference:
Dr. William Clifford Roberts Obituary. Available at: https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/dallas-tx/william-roberts-11334900. Accessed July 25, 2023.