On Aug. 26, 1938, Robert Gross then Chief Resident in Surgery at Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, performed the first successful closure of the patent ductus arteriosus, a congenital heart defect of infants, ushering in an era of corrective heart surgery for children.

In 1945 he successfully treated an infant with respiratory distress who had a double aortic arch compressing the trachea and esophagus. He had studied this anomaly at a post mortem he had performed in 1931.

In 1953, Gross published his classic book, The Surgery of Infancy and Childhood, a one-author book of exactly 1,000 pages. It was often referred to as “the green bible,” was published in four languages, and sold over 40,000 copies. Gross authored 240 peer reviewed articles in his career.