Derek G. Gibson—a unique scientist and cardiologist, 1936–2021

On 7th December 2021, the cardiology community lost an eminent cardiologist and the Grandfather of Echocardiography in the UK, Derek Gibson, at age of 85 years. Dr Derek Gibson felt passionate about a number of fine things. Perhaps foremost on that list was the harpsichord that had once been owned by the son of J.S. Bach, the ‘London Bach’. When asked to play something by J.S. Bach, he would comply enthusiastically and proudly. He once said about the Baroque Era of music, there was Old Bach—and then there was everybody else. One of the saddest markers of his decline was when he no longer played the instrument because he had become unable to tune it. He also had a passion for copper prints, for fine clocks, and for Coromandel screens; he had a personal list of vendors who would apprise him of special items when they appeared. Derek was born in Bath, the son of a pathologist who had an impressive home in The Royal Crescent. Although he was very young when it began, his understanding of World War II was profound. During the London blitz, he was of the generation of children that was sent out of London to the countryside for their safety. He went to Trinity College, Cambridge University, where he completed the Tripos examination for his bachelor’s degree. He was influenced by Sir Andrew Huxley, the Nobel Prize winner, and by the tradition of Sir Isaac Newton, who also went to Trinity. This led to a life-long focus on the physical work of the left ventricle (LV). Before LV volume measurements became feasible, he used the apexcardiogram as a surrogate for volume when plotted against pressure. He called the attention of the cardiology community to aberrations in the long axis of the LV. He was always sceptical, perhaps scornful, of measures of LV performance that lacked physical units (e.g. LV ‘contractility’). He spent his whole life in the UK, where he might have been perfectly described by W.S. Gilbert in HMS Pinafore: ‘In spite of all temptations to belong to other nations he remained an Englishman’. Derek had several trainees of whom he was very proud. In many cases, they were from overseas and had only limited means, in which case he would make an appropriation from ‘Dr Gibson’s Special Cardiac Fund’, perhaps for a proper suit. Most of Derek’s graduates started their career based on the scientific foundations received from him, having added their own as they developed their individual niches, and are all now professors and consultants in the UK and overseas. Derek had a special relationship with Egypt. Every year, his visit to Alexandria was advertised on the national media, and his clinic schedules were filled. Together with Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub, the famous Imperial College cardiac surgeon, he brought several talented young people to London to complete their training and to establish their careers. He also had other special relationships in the Middle East. His visits to the great historical sites of the Middle East were enviable, sites that he was privileged to view. While pages will never suffice to document the life, achievements, and unique personality features of a dear friend such as Derek, we leave the above brief in the hands of the readers of the European Heart Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging to contemplate this unique model of a scholar and clinician who dedicated his life to medicine and science. A few of us had the privilege of learning to know this fundamentally shy man; we shall miss him very much.

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