Norman E. Shumway, the surgeon who performed the first successful human heart transplant in the United States in 1968, died Friday, Feb. 10, at his home in Palo Alto from complications related to cancer. He had turned 83 the day before.

The professor emeritus of cardiothoracic surgery, widely regarded as the father of heart transplantation, established Stanford as the national leader in the pioneering surgery for nearly a decade. Shumway arrived at Stanford in 1958 as an instructor in surgery and took advantage of expanded campus facilities to begin the research that helped popularize what had been considered one of the most dangerous operations in the field.

By 1959, Shumway and his first resident, Richard Lower, transplanted the heart of one dog into another. Though the recipient dog lived only eight days, the experiment proved that donated organs could be kept alive — and that heart transplants were feasible. In 1967, Christiaan Barnard performed the world’s first heart transplant in South Africa, using techniques Shumway had helped develop. The patient lived for 18 days.

What brought the publicity-shy surgeon the most attention, however, was the first successful adult human heart transplant performed in the United States — only the fourth attempted in the world. On Jan. 9, 1968, Shumway operated on 54-year-old steel worker Mike Kasperak, who lived for 14 days. It also propelled Stanford, the site of the surgery, into the spotlight.

Shumway, who grew up in Michigan, attended the University of Michigan before he was drafted into the army. He earned his medial degree from Vanderbilt University, and completed his internship, residency and surgical training at the University of Minnesota, with a two-year stint in the Air Force. He obtained his doctorate in cardiovascular surgery in 1956.

In addition to his groundbreaking surgical work, Shumway chaired Stanford’s Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, which he helped create, until his retirement in 1993.

“He developed one of the world’s most distinguished departments of cardiothoracic surgery at Stanford, trained leaders who now guide this field throughout the world and created a record of accomplishment that few will ever rival,” said Philip Pizzo, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine, in a press release. “His impact will be long-lived and his name long-remembered. We will miss Norm Shumway and the dignity and excellence that he brought to medicine and surgery — and to Stanford.”

Shumway is survived by his former wife, Mary Lou, of Palo Alto; four children, Sara, Lisa, Amy and Michael; and two grandchildren.