Thomas Fogarty

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Thomas Fogarty (1934 - ), American inventor and vintner.

1 Background
2 Accomplishments
3 Quotations
4 Sources

[edit] Background

Thomas Fogarty was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1934. His father died when young Fogarty was 8 (or 6 - sources vary), leaving him to do home repairs for his mother. He also was a Golden Gloves boxing champion with a professional boxing record of 1-0.

[edit] Accomplishments

Fogarty invented the centrifugal clutch at the age of 15^{[citation needed]} and the embolectomy balloon catheter (i.e., the Fogarty catheter) while in medical school at the University of Cincinnati (or as a scrub technician before medical school - sources vary) by altering a surgical glove using techniques learned from fly-fishing. In 2000 he won the Lemelson-MIT Prize for Invention and Innovation (the world's largest single award for invention and innovation). He is named on over 100 patents for surgical instruments and is an inductee in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Fogarty was a member of the surgical team under Dr. Norman Shumway that performed the first heart transplant in the United States.

Dr. Fogarty was the President of the Stanford University Medical Center from 1977-1979 and has founded or co-founded over 30 companies in the medical field. He also founded Three Arch Partners, a medical device venture capital firm. In 2000, Dr. Fogarty also established the Fogarty Medical Foundation, through which he has donated over $250,000 to non-profit health research.

He also owns and operates Fogarty Research & Development, and Thomas Fogarty Winery. The latter produces around 15,000 cases of wine annually.