Francis J. Klocke, MD ’60

Francis J. Klocke, MD ’60, is a pioneering cardiovascular physician-scientist and a past president of the American College of Cardiology.

Klocke’s interest in cardiovascular medicine was stimulated by his interactions with Hermann Rahn, PhD, the legendary chair of UB’s Department of Physiology, with whom he worked while in medical school.

Following residency at Yale School of Medicine and a cardiology fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Klocke joined the faculty of UB’s Department of Medicine in 1965. 

Based initially at Buffalo General Hospital and subsequently at Erie County Medical Center, Klocke led an inter-institutional cardiovascular research program that secured NIH program-project support for 20 consecutive years. His research centered on coronary circulation, including both normal control mechanisms and abnormalities in coronary artery disease and other pathologic states.

Klocke was appointed professor of medicine in 1971 and university-wide chief of cardiology in 1976.

He received the medical school’s Stockton Kimball Award for Academic Achievement in 1981, and in 1983 was named the initial holder of the Albert and Elizabeth Rekate Professorship in Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease. 

In 1991, Klocke was recruited to Northwestern University Medical School as director of the newly established Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute. When he stepped down as institute’s director in 2006, it had grown to include more than 100 faculty members from 13 academic departments and had a fourfold increase in annual external support.

Klocke was particularly involved in the institute’s development of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, including a high-resolution technique for imaging myocardial infarctions that has subsequently been utilized for clinical and research purposes by more than 50 institutions worldwide.

Throughout his career Klocke undertook major assignments for the NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; the American College of Cardiology; the American Heart Association (AHA) and other academic centers and external organizations. He served on the NHLBI’s National Advisory Council and more than 15 of its major advisory committees and boards. He is a past president of the American College of Cardiology and former chair of the AHA’s Council on Circulation.