John Heysham Gibbon

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John Heysham Gibbon Jr., AB, MD, (September 29, 1903 - February 5, 1973) a surgeon who is famous for inventing the heart-lung machine and performing the first open heart surgery (a repair of an atrial septal defect). He was the son of Dr. John Heysham Gibbon, Sr., and Marjorie Young Gibbon (daughter of General Samuel Baldwin Marks Young). He came from a long line of medical doctors including his father, grandfather Robert, great-grandfather John (who dropped the final 's' from the family name and who never used his medical degree but instead worked as the chief assayer of the Charlotte Mint), and great-great grandfather John Hannum Gibbons, who took his degree from the University of Edinburgh. Another great-great grandfather, John Lardner, was also a physician. His grandfather was a surgeon of James H. Lane's Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg which fought against the division commanded by his own brother General John Gibbon.

He received his AB from Princeton University in 1923 and his MD from Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia in 1927. Later, he received honorary degrees from the Universities of Princeton, Buffalo and Pennsylvania, and Dickinson College. He married Mary Hopkinson, daughter of painter Charles Hopkinson. He had three children, Mary, Alice, and John.

During World War II he served in the Burma China India Theater.