BOSTON — Bernard Lown, a Harvard University cardiologist who invented the first effective heart defibrillator, died Tuesday in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. He was 99.
Lown’s death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Ariel Lown Lewiton, The New York Times reported. Lewiton said her grandfather had experienced complications from congestive heart failure and pneumonia, the newspaper reported.
Lown was a social activist, founding Physicians for Social Responsibility in 1960 and later co-founding International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in the 1980s, according to The Associated Press.
The latter organization won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize for its campaign against nuclear war.
In 1962, the Lithuanian-born Lown developed a new method for correcting dangerously abnormal heart rhythms, the Times reported. By using a precisely timed jolt of direct current electricity, Lown’s defibrillator was able to restore heartbeats to normal levels, the newspaper reported.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney is perhaps the most prominent beneficiary of the defibrillator, the Times reported.
In 1980, seven American and Soviet physicians, including Lown and Yevgeny I. Chazov, a Russian cardiologist and personal doctor to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, founded International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Campaigning against nuclear testing and the arms race, the group had gathered 135,000 members in 41 countries by 1985, according to the Times.
In a 2008 memoir, “Prescription for Survival: A Doctor’s Journey to End Nuclear Madness,” Lown recalled the story of his anti-nuclear group and wrote that the end of the Cold War had not ended the threat of annihilation.
“Eliminating the nuclear menace,” Lown wrote, “is a historic challenge questioning whether we humans have a future on planet Earth.”
Lown was born in Utena, Lithuania, on June 7, 1921, and moved in 1935 with his father to Lewiston, Maine, the AP reported. A bridge was renamed in his honor in 2008, when then-Maine Gov. John Baldacci renamed the span crossing the Androscoggin River between Lewiston and Auburn the Bernard Lown Peace Bridge, the Bangor Daily News reported.
Lown’s father ran a shoe factory in Pittsfield, Maine, and Lown spent his teen years in Lewiston, where he graduated from high school in 1938, the Daily News reported.
Lown graduated from the University of Maine, where he received a bachelor’s degree in zoology, the newspaper reported. He received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
The University of Maine’s Alumni Humanitarian Award is named for Lown. He won the inaugural award in 1988.
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Jimmie Rodgers Jimmie Rodgers, who scored his biggest hit with "Honeycomb" in 1957, died Jan. 18. He was 87. (Jim McCrary/Redfern)
Legendary talk show host Larry King dead at 87 FILE PHOTO: Legendary talk show host Larry King has died. He was 87. (Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)
Gregory Sierra Gregory Sierra, who played Sgt. Miguel “Chano” Amanguale on "Barney Miller," died Jan. 4. Sierra also starred on "Sanford and Son" and appeared in several other television shows. (Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Photo Archives/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images)
Bob Avian Tony Award-winning choreographer Bob Avian died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Jan. 21. He was 83. (Shiho Fukada/Associated Press, File)
Mira Furlan Actress Mira Furlan, who starred in all 111 episodes of "Babylon 5" and also appeared in "Lost." died Jan. 20. She was 65. ( Michael Schwartz/WireImage)
Baseball legend Hank Aaron dead at 86 FILE PHOTO: Legendary baseball slugger Henry “Hank” Aaron has died. He was 86. (Tim Bradbury/Getty Images)
Don Sutton Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton, who won 324 games and pitched for six pennant winners during his 23-year major league baseball career, died Jan. 18. He was 75. ( Andrew Snook/Icon Sportswire/Corbis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Harry Brant Harry Brant, the son of supermodel Stephanie Seymour and businessman Peter Brant, died Jan. 17 from an accidental overdose. He was 24. ( Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic)
Phil Spector has died at 81 FILE PHOTO: Music producer Phil Spector, known for his "Wall of Sound" and who was later convicted of murder, has died. He was 81. (Pool/Getty Images)
Sylvain Sylvain Sylvain Sylvain, a guitarist for the New York Dolls, a group that ushered in the punk rock era of the 1970s, died Jan. 13. He was 69. ( Matt Kent/WireImage)
Siegfried Fischbacher FILE PHOTO: Siegfried Fischbacher speaks during the 23rd annual Keep Memory Alive 'Power of Love Gala' benefit for the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health at MGM Grand Garden Arena on March 16, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fischbacher died Jan. 15 at the age of 81. (Bryan Steffy/Getty Images for Keep Memory Ali)
Sheldon Adelson FILE - This Feb. 10, 2017 file photo, Chief Executive of Las Vegas Sands Corporation Sheldon Adelson shows at a business roundtable with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. Adelson, the billionaire mogul and power broker who built a casino empire spanning from Las Vegas to China and became a singular force in domestic and international politics has died after a long illness, his wife said Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) (Andrew Harnik/AP)
Eve Branson FILE PHOTO: Richard Branson (L) and honoree Eve Branson attend the AltaMed Power Up, We Are The Future Gala at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel on May 12, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. Richard Branson announced the death of his mother due to COVID-19. (Michael Kovac)
Nancy Bush Ellis FILE PHOTO: This Jan. 7, 1990, file photo shows President George H. W. Bush hiding behind his sister, Nancy Ellis, as he prepares for a jog along the C&O canal in the Georgetown section of Washington. A longtime Democrat who helped her Republican brother and nephew get elected president, died of complications of the coronavirus Sunday, Jan. 10, 2021, at an assisted living facility in Concord, Massachusetts. She was 94. (Marcy Nighswander/AP)
Actor John Reilly dead at 86 Actor John Reilly is pictured holding his daughter, Caitlyn Reilly, when she was a child. The longtime soap opera actor died in early January 2021 of an undisclosed cause. (Courtesy Caitlyn Reilly)
Tommy Lasorda FILE PHOTO: Tommy Lasorda of the Los Angeles Dodgers poses for a portrait during spring training photo day at Camelback Ranch on February 20, 2014 in Glendale, Arizona. The Dodgers announced Lasorda died at the age of 93. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Neil Sheehan Neil Sheehan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose articles on the Pentagon Papers triggered a court battle, died Jan. 7. He was 84. (Frederic Reglain/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Eric Jerome Dickey Bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey died Jan. 3 in Los Angeles. He was 59. (Joseph Jones via Associated Press )
Tanya Roberts FILE PHOTO: Actress Tanya Roberts arrives at the gala premiere of "Criss Angel Believe" by Cirque du Soleil at the Luxor Resort & Casino October 31, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The former Bond girl died Jan. 4 at the age of 65. Her death was confirmed after conflicting reports from her publicist and her companion. (Ethan Miller)
Gerry Marsden FILE PHOTO - In this April 25, 1964 file photo, Gerry Marsden leaps over his band, the Pacemakers. Gerry Marsden, the British singer and lead singer of Gerry and the Pacemakers, who was instrumental in turning a song from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Carousel” into one of the great anthems in the world of football, has died. He was 78. (AP)
Paul Westphal Hall of Fame basketball coach Paul Westphal died Jan. 2, the Phoenix Suns announced. He was 70. (Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
Floyd Little Hall of Fame running back Floyd Little, who starred at Syracuse University and for the NFL's Denver Broncos, died Jan. 1. He was 78. ( Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via Getty Images)