Dr. Bigger was a surgeon who earned his medical degree from the University of Virginia in 1919. He eventually became Associate Professor of Surgery at Vanderbilt, where he remained until 1930, when he became Professor and Head of the Department of Surgery at the Medical College of Virginia, becoming the youngest departmental head in the United States at that time. Dr. Bigger was a pioneer in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, but his surgical interests were protean.