JDr. Pat O. Daily, a cardiothoracic surgeon, professor, inventor, entrepreneur and pilot was born on January 1, 1937 in Tulsa Oklahoma, the son of esteemed family doctor Raymond E. Daily M.D. and Helen O. (Newlin) Daily. He passed from this life on April 25, 2008 at his home in Bixby, Oklahoma at the age of 71.

Dr. Daily earned his B.S. in biology from the University of Oklahoma and his medical degree from the University of Chicago, School of Medicine. He worked as an Air Force flight surgeon and completed his residency in cardiovascular surgery at Stanford University where he became a professor of surgery. As director of cardiac surgery, first at the University of California, San Diego Medical Center and later at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, Dr. Daily performed hundreds of open-heart surgeries each year and was sought out by patients from all over the world, including Jonas Salk and several Nobel laureates. Though he had numerous accomplishments in the field of cardiac medicine, Dr. Daily is best known for pioneering pulmonary thromboendarterectomy (PTE), a surgical procedure for removing chronic clots from blood vessels of the lungs. Devoted to helping otherwise healthy patients avoid a bed-to-chair existence, Dr. Daily was one of the few surgeons willing to undertake the painstakingly long and tedious procedure to individually dissect, clean and repair the many branches of the pulmonary arteries. He was a member of the team that performed the first human heart transplant in the United States in 1968. He also developed the Stanford classification system for dissecting aortic aneurysms and published more than one hundred scientific articles during his four-decade career. The San Diego chapter of the American Heart Assn. honored him as Man of the Year in 2003. An inventor, Dr. Daily designed the surgical instruments needed for performing PTE. He also designed a cardiac cooling jacket, which Dr. D. Craig Miller, chief of surgery at Stanford and president of the American Assn. for Thoracic Surgery, deemed the best cardiac surgical device of the decade. Dr. Daily went on to found a medical device company, Daily Medical Products, which distributed several products internationally. Seeing a need for fast, affordable heart-healthy food,

Dr. Daily opened a chain of low-fat, fast food restaurants, Daily's Fit & Fresh Restaurants, in 1991. He also formulated his own line of vitamins and antioxidants. A skilled pilot - he held the highest certification offered by the Federal Aviation Admin. - Dr. Daily enjoyed flying acrobatic airplanes. He was also an avid scuba diver and underwater videographer and had a lifelong interest in ham radio, having built his first from bits and pieces when he was 11 years old.

He is survived by his wife, Dianne. The couple lived in Rancho Santa Fe, CA, before recently relocating to Bixby, where he was co-owner of BTC, a local telecommunications company, and a supporter of the Daily Family YMCA. He is also survived by his daughter, Auburn of San Francisco, his son, Ray of Tijuana, Mexico, his sister, Mary Lee Prout of Huntsville, AL and his four grandchildren; Blaine, Christina, Ray and Stephanie He was predeceased by his son, Scott Daily. .

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Daily Family YMCA of Bixby or the Hospice of Green Country of Tulsa.