Robert W. Wissler, 89; linked smoking to artery hardening in young men

Dr. Robert W. Wissler, 89, a cardiovascular researcher who led the first study to link smoking and blood cholesterol levels to hardening of the arteries in young men, died Nov. 28 in Chicago.

Wissler, who taught pathology at the University of Chicago, led a research team that examined autopsies of 300 white men, ages 15 to 34, who died unexpectedly but had no history of chronic disease. The team found that by 34, those subjects who smoked had lesions on the right coronary artery and the abdominal aorta that were early signs of hardening of the arteries.

A native of Richmond, Ind., Wissler studied at Earlham College in Richmond before earning a medical degree from the University of Chicago, where he also received a doctorate in pathology in 1946. He joined the faculty of the University of Chicago as an assistant professor in 1947 and eventually headed the pathology department. A past president of the American Board of Pathology, he retired in 1987.