The UNC School of Medicine community is saddened to share that former cardiology colleague and friend, James R. “Buddy” Harper, MD, passed away March 8, 2021, in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
Update: Read Dr. Harper’s obituary in The Pilot.
Dr. James R. “Buddy” Harper touched the lives of generations of Tar Heels, from patients and colleagues to students and friends. Kathy Huffman Falk, MD, remembers him as an attending physician while she was a UNC Medicine Resident, and later as a medical partner at Chapel Hill Internal Medicine (CHIM), a practice he founded in 1967.
“Dr. Harper was the consummate personal physician. He greeted each patient like an old friend, with a smile and warm handshake,” said Kathy Falk, professor of medicine in the division of nephrology. “Among my fondest memories is being in the same exam room with him as he examined a patient. It was the gentleness and care in the way he put his stethoscope on the patient’s chest, the attention he paid to the patient’s words, the kindness in his eyes that let the patient know he cared. It was like being in a Norman Rockwell painting, only better.”
When Harper joined UNC’s cardiology faculty in 1991, to supervise outpatient services and serve as co-director of ECG Laboratories, Paula Miller, MD, was hired to fill his position. But she says she didn’t take his place because “that could never be done.”
“Dr. Harper was a beloved community cardiologist who worked with Tim Smeltzer, MD, and David Brown, MD, at Chapel Hill Internal Medicine. He was passionate about his practice, and he became a great friend and mentor to me,” said Miller, professor of medicine in the division of cardiology. “Patients adored him.”
In 1999, Harper was appointed associate dean and director of medical alumni affairs for the UNC School of Medicine. Wesley C. Fowler, Jr. MD, current associate dean, describes him as a Tar Heel through and through, of the highest character, who loved the University and the Medical School and contributed significantly to alumni loyalty.
“I don’t have the words to say what he meant to me,” Fowler said. “He was a good friend and someone that I admired very much, and often went to for advice, even after he retired. He was one of a kind and there will never be another like him.”
Harper served as associate dean of UNC Medical Alumni Affairs until June, 2012, when he retired after 45 years of service to UNC. He grew up in Snow Hill, NC, and graduated from UNC in 1956 with an AB degree in European History. He earned his medical degree in 1960, and completed post-graduate training in internal medicine and cardiology at the University of Florida, Vanderbilt, UNC and Duke University. From 1961 to 1963, he spent two years in the US Public Health Service, affiliated with Vanderbilt, and served as director of cardiac services for the state of Tennessee. One of Harper’s proudest achievements was the development of the Orange Cardiovascular Foundation, the first cardiac rehabilitation program for post-operative patients, founded in the mid-1970s with Peter Starek, MD.
Harper once described his intent to be a doctor as part of his destiny. His father graduated from UNC’s two-year medical school in 1903 and became a “horse and buggy” doctor. His son, James Robinson “Rob” Harper, Jr., MD, followed in his footsteps and practices cardiology in Wilmington, NC.