Dr. Gustav Carl Voigt, a cardiologist and occupational medical consultant who was president of the Chesapeake Health Plan Foundation and former chairman of emergency medicine at Baltimore City Hospitals, died Monday of a brain tumor at his Roland Park home. He was 66.
Since 1993, Dr. Voigt had been president of the Chesapeake Health Plan Foundation, a private foundation that was established to provide support to individuals, organizations and institutions for the improvement of the health and well-being of children.
He was cardiologist-in-chief at the former Baltimore City Hospitals, now Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, from 1970 until 1980, and chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the hospital from 1980 until 1990.
He also established the mobile cardiac intensive care program for the Baltimore Fire Department and played a pivotal role in the founding of the Maryland Emergency Cardiac Care System.
"He was an extremely talented clinician and a very effective teacher of clinical medicine. And he was dedicated to the institution," said Dr. Philip D. Zieve, vice president of medical affairs at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.
A friend for 40 years, Dr. Zieve credited Dr. Voigt with creating the discipline in emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins.
"Everything he did, he did with energy and dedication," he said.
Dr. Zieve described him as a "complicated and articulate man who could be reserved and, on the other hand, very loquacious. He was a man who had many friends."
Dr. John R. Burton, chairman of the medical board of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, said, "I knew him first as a teacher and mentor. He was an excellent doctor, compassionate, caring and very committed."
Dr. Burton stressed Dr. Voigt's interest in developing the "best in patient care and developing emergency medical programs that became highly respected."
Born and raised in Springfield, Mass., Dr. Voigt earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1956. He earned his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1960. He also held specialty certifications in cardiology, emergency medicine, internal medicine and occupational-aerospace medicine.
He served in the Army Medical Corps and was in Germany during the Berlin crisis of 1962, and remained active as a reservist.
