Horace MacVaugh III, M’55, a former associate professor of surgery in Penn’s School of Medicine and a former chair of surgery at Lankenau Hospital, passed away on January 24 from complications of Parkinson’s Disease. He was 91.

Dr. MacVaugh was born in Philadelphia. He graduated from Cheltenham High School in 1948, then from Yale University in 1952. In 1955, he received a medical degree from Penn, then did his internship at Abington Memorial Hospital and his residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (the latter funded by a fellowship in surgery research). In 1960, Dr. MacVaugh joined Penn’s faculty as an assistant instructor in surgery, then became an associate instructor, assistant professor, and in 1974, an associate professor in the same department. He taught at Penn until 1978. 

Concurrent with his rise through the ranks at Penn’s School of Medicine, Dr. MacVaugh joined the U.S. Naval Reserve Medical Corps and rose from lieutenant junior grade in 1955 to  retired two-star rear admiral in 1989. He served two years as a flight surgeon for a transport squadron in Hawaii, and also traveled to Japan, Thailand, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines.

During the 1980s, Dr. MacVaugh was a professor of surgery at Jefferson Medical College and chief of Lankenau Hospital’s (now Lankenau Medical Center’s) open-heart surgery team, performing 700 to 800 surgeries a year. He completed one of the first coronary artery bypass operations at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, served as chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Graduate Hospital (which was part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System until its 2006 closure), and set the foundation for the present success of the Lankenau Heart Institute. 

Dr. MacVaugh was a member of many social clubs and professional societies and traveled widely. He frequently appeared for emergency surgeries still dressed in a tuxedo or in his admiral’s uniform, that he had been wearing for the night’s events. 

He is survived by his wife Carol Burns, his children Leslie and Horace VI, seven grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, a sister, and other relatives. Services were private, but donations in his name may be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Donation Processing, P.O. Box 5014, Hagerstown, MD 21741, and the Church of the Holy Trinity, 1904 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19103.