Dr. Jeffrey E. Shogan of Murrysville was a gifted oncologist, a caring physician with a brilliant mind and a quick thinker who worked to help not only his patients but also less fortunate people around the world, a colleague said.
Dr. Shogan, 56, director of business services and chief business officer for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Cancer Centers in Oakland, died Saturday, Jan. 9, 2010, in his home of an apparent heart attack.
"He was a tremendous professional and a very caring person," said Dr. Stanley Marks, deputy director and chief medical officer at UPMC Cancer Centers as well as a close friend and business associate.
Dr. Shogan's wife, Jacqueline Shogan, is a state Superior Court judge. Dr. Shogan helped to run her successful campaign to the statewide post in 2007, Marks said.
Dr. Shogan grew up in Monroeville, the son of Andrew L. Shogan and the late Anne R. Shogan. He earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy and psychology from Yale University in New Haven, Conn., in 1975.
After graduation, he spent two years in the Peace Corps in Thailand, where he gained a deep and lasting affection for the people, Marks said. He also worked with refugees in camps on the Thai-Burmese border and with an orphanage in Northern Thailand. He had plans to open a charitable medical clinic in Northern Thailand and visited the area last month to make preliminary arrangements.
He spent two years in Lagos, Nigeria, with a telecommunications subsidiary of Westinghouse Electric Corp. of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Shogan received his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1982, then completed his internship and residency at what is now UPMC Presbyterian in Oakland and at Duke University Medical Center.
Before taking his current position, Dr. Shogan was director and founder of Allegheny General Hospital's bone marrow transplant program. Marks said he had recruited Dr. Shogan to Allegheny General Hospital in 1989 from Duke University's bone marrow transplant program.
At AGH, Dr. Shogan co-managed a private practice group that grew to about 30 physicians seeing more than 12,500 new patients a year. After AGH became entangled in bankruptcy, the practice moved to the UPMC, Marks said. When the group merged with UPMC, it became one of the largest cancer care networks in the country, family members said.
Dr. Shogan was chairman of the board for D3 Advanced Radiation Planning Services in Oakland, a company he co-founded with Marks and Dr. Peter G. Ellis. It helps oncologists map out radiation treatments, Marks said.
"He was one of the nation's leading experts in the area of radiation physics," which can help doctors around the world plan the radiation treatment to target cancer and not damage surrounding tissue, Marks said.
Dr. Shogan was a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
"Dr. Shogan was a wonderful physician — exquisitely sensitive to the physical and emotional needs of his many patients — and a masterful oncologist. He was widely admired by his colleagues, both locally and nationally, and he died at much too early an age," said Dr. Arthur S. Levine, dean of Pitt's medical school.
In addition to his wife and father, survivors include a daughter, Alyson L. Shogan; two sons, Jeffrey C. Shogan and Jack E. Shogan; and a brother, Andrew W. Shogan.
Friends will be received from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday in the Jobe Funeral Home and Cremation Services Inc., Beatty Road and Route 48 North, Monroeville. A Mass of Christian Burial will be at 11 a.m. Thursday in St. Colman Church, Turtle Creek. Private interment will take place in St. Joseph Cemetery.
The family asks that memorials be in the form of contributions to Friends of Jeff Shogan, c/o Thorp, Reed & Armstrong, 301 Grant St., 14th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.
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