A pioneer of heart surgery, Dr. Nazih Zuhdi died Tuesday after six decades giving Oklahoma the best he could give.

Zuhdi, 91, was a world-renowned heart surgeon, and he did his work proudly in Oklahoma City, his family and friends said.

Zuhdi was born in Beirut, Lebanon, on May 19, 1925, the son of a Syrian ophthalmologist father and Turkish mother.

He earned his medical degree from the American University of Beirut in 1950, before immigrating to the United States in 1951. He came to Oklahoma in 1957 to practice medicine, and from there, he never stopped innovating.