Dr. Willem J. Kolff Dies

Willem J. Kolff, 97, the Dutch-born doctor who saved and prolonged countless lives as the inventor of the modern kidney dialysis machine and chief designer of the first mechanical heart implanted in a human being, died Feb. 11 in Newtown Square, Pa. He had congestive heart failure.

Dr. Kolff spent much of his career in the United States and became distinguished professor emeritus of internal medicine, surgery and bioengineering at the University of Utah. Sometimes called "the father of the artificial organ," he was a mentor to Robert Jarvik and other pioneers in that field.

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Dr. Kolff's son Jacob, a retired heart surgeon in Villanova, Pa., recalled yesterday that it was to the caretaker's house at the sanitarium that his father moved the Jewish boy he was hiding when police became suspicious. The boy survived the war and later became a dentist in the Netherlands.

Dr. Kolff received a medical degree at the University of Leiden in 1938 and worked as an assistant in the pathology department. He later received a doctorate at the University of Groningen.

He married the former Janke Huidekoper in 1937. They divorced when he was 90. She died in 2005.

In addition to Jacob, he is survived by four other children, Albert Kolff of Fairfield, Conn., Cornelius Kolff of Port Townsend, Wash., Therus Kolff of Atlanta and Adrie Burnett of Falmouth, England; 12 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

Rest In Peace, Willem.