Dr. Rene Geronimo Favaloro (July 12, 1923 – July 29, 2000) was an Argentine cardiac surgeon who developed the coronary bypass operation. In 1967, Favaloro became the first surgeon to perform a coronary bypass surgery, a medical procedure that became the most important technique in coronary surgery. He was raised in Buenos Aires, as the son of a carpenter and a dressmaker. Favaloro went on to become a country doctor in a remote town on the pampas. He became interested in the developments of cardiovascular interventions and developed an enthusiasm for thoracic surgery. After 12 years as a rural physician, and with few resources and some rudimentary English, he decided to join the prestigious Cleveland Clinic as a resident and later as a member of their cardiovascular surgery team. Every day, after finishing his work in the surgery room, Dr. Favaloro spent countless hours reviewing coronary angiograms and studying coronary arteries and their relation with the cardiac muscle. At the beginning of 1967, he began to consider the use of the saphenous vein in coronary surgery. He put his ideas into practice for the first time in May of that year. The basic idea was to bypass a diseased or obstructed segment in a coronary artery in order to deliver blood flow distally. The standardization of this technique, called bypass or myocardial revascularization surgery, radically changed the history of coronary disease, and is now one of the most important methods for treating heart disease. Dr. Favaloro became a "world hero" and, in 1971, returned to Argentina and started a Foundation to establish a center of excellence similar to the Cleveland Clinic, which combined medical attention, investigation and education. His clinic was heralded as "one of the most advanced medical centers in Latin America." He took great pride in having trained more than 450 residents from all over Argentina and the Americas. By the year 2000, Argentina was submerged in an economic and political crisis, and his Favaloro Foundation was $75 million in debt. He petitioned the Argentine government to aid the Foundation to no avail. On July 29, 2000 Dr. Favaloro committed suicide by shooting himself in the heart. Following his death, it was revealed that he had written a letter to the President of Argentina, that had never been read, in which Dr. Favaloro expressed being tired of "being a beggar in his own country" and asked President De la Rua to "help him raise money to help the Foundation." Dr. Rene Favaloro traveled from Argentina in the summer of 1993 to the Achievement Summit in majestic Glacier National Park in Montana to address the Academy's student delegates.