Association of University Cardiologists
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Robert O. Brandenburg, M.D.
1918 - 2009
Robert Brandenburg was an accomplished musician who played clarinet with the Lawrence Welk Orchestra while still in high school. His college band played for such stars as Peggy Lee. It appeared that Brandenburg was headed for a career as a professional musician, but after traveling through his native North Dakota in the 1930s with nine band members packed in a vehicle, he changed his mind.
Brandenburg became a distinguished cardiologist at the world-famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, where his patients included Walter O’Malley, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers who moved the team to Los Angeles in 1957; John Willard Marriot, founder of the Marriott Corporation, and the Rev. Billy Graham.
Brandenburg died June 5 of congestive heart failure at Friendship Village in Bloomington. He was 90.
Brandenburg, whose father was a veterinarian, graduated from North Dakota State University and the University of North Dakota Medical School. He completed his medical education at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and interned at Philadelphia's Presbyterian Hospital in the early 1940s. He served for two years in the Army before he moved to Rochester, where he completed his residency at the Mayo Clinic in the late 1940s.
While on staff at Mayo, Brandenburg was chairman of the Cardiology Department. He served as president of the American College of Cardiology, which awarded him its Distinguished Fellowship Award in 1988. Brandenburg also wrote "Cardiology: Fundamentals and Practice," a textbook he coauthored with Dr. Valentin Fuster, professor of medicine and cardiology at Mount Siani School Medicine in New York. It was considered the premier text when it was published in 1987.
Brandenburg kept his music interest alive by leading the Notochords, a group of Mayo physicians who played at dances and performed impromptu jam sessions for patients who included Louie Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Al Hirt. Brandenburg had a "big smile" on his face while his family gathered at his bedside and played CDs of his favorite jazz greats and Big Band artists.
In retirement, Brandenburg taught part time at the University of Arizona Medical School, wrote a cardiovascular disease column for the Green Valley News in Arizona, and traveled to all seven continents with adventures that included a trip to Antarctica, flying on the Concorde and crossing the English Channel via the Chunnel linking England and France.