Physiology Professor A. Clifford Barger Dies

A. Clifford Barger, Robert Henry Pfeiffer Professor of Physiology Emeritus at the Medical School, died of liver cancer on March 13 in his Brookline home. He was 79.

Barger was an expert on the pathophysiology of congestive heart failure.

"Cliff Barger was a physiologist's physiologist who introduced generations to his field," said Daniel Federman, dean for medical information in the Faculty of Medicine. "He welcomed students into his laboratory to do research, and it was often the beginning of a career and always the start of a lifelong friendship."

Born in Greenfield, Mass., Barger began his career at Harvard as a laboratory assistant in 1938 and retired as a professor of physiology in 1987.

Barger graduated from Harvard College in 1939, and received his M.D. from the Medical School in 1943.

Barger is a former president of the American Physiological Society and the Massachusetts Society for Medical Research.

Barger was a former chairman of the Physiology Committee of the National Board of Medical Examiners, a member of the editorial board on physiology in medicine for The New England Journal of Medicine, and chairman of the Publications Committee for the American Physiological Society.

Barger won the Ray G. Daggs Award and the Carl J. Wiggers Award of the American Physiological Society, and the Paul Dudley White Award of the American Heart Association.

After retiring, Barger served as chairman of the Harvard Alumni Fund.

Barger is survived by his wife, Claire (Basch); two sons, Craig of South Easton, Mass., and Curtis of Washington, D.C.; a daughter, Shael of Berkeley, Calif.; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

The Medical School has established the Dr. Cliff Barger Scholarship Fund. A memorial service will be planned at a future date.