In 1939, Robert Replogle moved with his parents Ralph and Edith and brother Ralph, Jr. to Clear Lake from Ottuma where he was born in 1931. He graduated from CLHS in 1949 then went on to Cornell College where his education was interrupted by his service in the U.S. Navy from 1951-1954.
Bob returned to Cornell from 1954-1956 then continued his post-graduate studies at Harvard’s Medical School, where he graduated Cum Laude in 1960. He completed his surgical internship at the University of Minnesota Hospital in 1961; worked in an assistant residency in surgery at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston from 1961-1963 and at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1965-1966. His senior residency in surgery was completed at Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston from 1964-1966. During his residency work, Bob was a Harvard Research Fellow.
Dr. Replogle’s first post-residency position was as surgical assistant at Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he worked until 1967 when he moved to Chicago. In that same year he earned his American Board of Surgery certification, an achievement followed by American Board of Thoracic Surgery Certification in 1968 and American Board of Surgery Certification with Special Competence in Pediatric Surgery in 1976.
From 1967 through 1998, Bob served in the following positions at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine: Assistant Professor of Surgery; Associate Professor of Surgery; Head, Section of Pediatric Surgery; Professor of Surgery; Head, Section of Pediatric Surgery; Professor of Surgery; Head, Section of Cardiac Surgery; Clinical Professor of Surgery, Section of Cardiac Surgery.
In addition, he worked on the medical staff in the Division of Cardiac Surgery at Humana Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center from 1977-1989; as Medical Director, Cardiac Surgery Unit, Ingalls Memorial Hospital from 1989-1998; and as Chief, Division of Cardiac Surgery, Columbus Hospital from 1987-1998.
During his career, Dr. Replogle has been a visiting professor at the University of Miami Medical School, at Albany Medical College, at the Dalhousie School of Medicine in Halifax, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, at the Philippine Heart Center for Asia, at the Heart Institute of Japan, at Creighton Medical School, at Brooke Army Medical Center, at the University of Heidelberg, at the Kerkoff Clinic/Max Panck Institute in Germany, at the German Heart Center in Munich, at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, at Harvard Medical School and at the University of Virginia’s Department of Surgery.
He has been an invited guest and speaker at the Syrian Cardiovascular Association and Third Congress, for the Korean Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, at the 1997 Global Forum on Telemedicine, at the Second World Congress of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery in Honolulu in 1997, and at the Texas Medical Association’s 130th Annual Session in 1997. He notes that his world travels have given him a unique opportunity to come to appreciate cultural differences and similarities.
Listed in Who’s Who in America in 1997, Dr. Roplogle served on a special international awarding committee to declare the first laureates of the Boris Petrofsky International Surgeons Award in 1997 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was a John H. Gibbon Lecturer for the American College of Surgeons in 2004. Cornell College has honored him with its Distinguished Achievement Award.
Over the years, Bob has held membership and in numerous medical societies and key positions on their varied committees. Among those have been the American Heart Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Surgeons, the International Cardiovascular Society, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. He has held positions ranging from President to residency review committee. In addition, he has published well over 100 articles, abstracts and chapters in medical journals and books.
Bob was married to his wife Carol, also a physician, in 1958, and is the father of three children: Dr. Robert E. Replogle, Professor of Neurosurgery, University of Texas; Dr. Jennifer Bremer, Child Psychiatrist, University of Chicago; and Dr. Edith A. Sheffer, who completed her Ph.D. in German history at the University of California, Berkeley. Among the things he lists as his primary interests in observing the many successes of his children and grandchildren. He says he also loves eating his wife’s gourmet food, enjoys “first-class wine” and digital photography.
On his list of greatest concerns are the lack of political involvement among thoracic surgeons, the cost of high tech surgical treatment, the education and future of young surgeons, and the roles of government and managed care in modern medicine.