Jeffrey Piehler, md
1947-2014
“There is something divine in the world and the language of that divinity is love.”
Dr. Jeffrey Piehler graduated from Cornell University Medical College in 1973 after attending Williams College, with additional training at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, New Hampshire and the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota.
As staff cardiovascular surgeon at Mayo, he performed thousands of operations, published over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and was a regular presenter at national and international conferences. In 1986 Dr. Piehler joined The Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Kansas, and in 2000, after moving his practice to the University of Kansas Medical Center, he received the St. Luke’s Faculty Award for excellence in teaching.
In 2002, Jeff was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and the chemotherapy side effects forced his retirement from surgery in 2005. He subsequently became an accomplished photographer.
In February 2014, The New York Times published Dr. Piehler’s Op-Ed “Ashes to Ashes, But First a Nice Pine Box,” which gained considerable national attention. The article described his poignant collaboration building his own artisanal coffin with artist friend Peter Warren.
“Acknowledging my mortality is absolutely the path that has taken me to where I am. It has rewritten my capacity to love and be loved.”