StaffDr. Harry R. Foster Jr. (’55) died June 29. Foster was former director of the pediatric teaching program at Georgia Baptist Hospital and former director of the Children’s Medical Services Cardiac Program for the state of Georgia. He practiced pediatrics until his retirement in 2017.
Dr. John Thomas Bigger Jr. (’60) died Oct. 8. After completing his residency at MCG, he moved to New York, and started his career at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons/New York Presbyterian Hospital where he was actively involved in teaching, research and clinical practices. He served as chief of Cardiology and director of the Arrhythmia Service. His groundbreaking work in the study of cardiac arrhythmias contributed tremendously to the field. He was the principal investigator in the Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial (CAST) and the CABG (coronary artery bypass graft) Patch Trial, which assessed the utility of automated implantable cardioverter defibrillators in patients with depressed ventricular function undergoing coronary bypass surgery.
Dr. Milton Irvin Johnson Jr. (’60) died July 28. Johnson opened his family practice in 1961 and continued with this office until 1986, at which time he worked with the V.A. Hospital in Dublin, Georgia, retiring in 1991.
Dr. Thomas A. “Butch” Cochran (’71) died July 14. He completed a surgical internship and three-year surgical residency at Baylor University Hospital in Dallas, Texas. After completing a two-year residency in plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Cochran began practicing medicine in Columbus, Georgia, in 1977.
