Luke Glancy, Esteemed Cardiologist and Educator of Doctors Across Louisiana, Dies at 87
Written by John Pope. Reprinted with permission from The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate
David Lucas “Luke” Glancy, a cardiologist at LSU Health Sciences Center who not only
taught hundreds of medical students but also was twice chief of cardiology, died Sunday
at his Folsom home, said his wife, Cynthia Glancy. He was 87.
The cause, she said, was ischemic cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart's ability to pump blood is decreased because the left ventricle, the heart's primary pumping chamber, is enlarged, dilated and weak.
“He was truly the best of us,” said Dr. Steve Nelson, LSU Health Sciences Center's interim chancellor, who described Glancy as “a gifted educator and physician (who) … inspired an abiding love of medicine, compassion and excellence in the hundreds of students and residents whose careers he shaped and who will carry on his legacy.”
Glancy came to New Orleans in 1972. From then until his retirement in 2014, he was at LSU Health Sciences Center, where he started as the medical school's chief of cardiology for two years. In 1992, after serving as medical director of cardiology and cardiac catheterization laboratories at Hotel Dieu Hospital (now part of University Medical Center), he became cardiology chief once again and held that post until 1999.
During his time in New Orleans, “he was seeing patients from every ward in the city … from so many walks of life,” his son David L. Glancy Jr. said. “That and teaching young people were his juice.”
When Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005, Glancy was the acting cardiology chief. Because the storm and the ensuing floodwaters had forced Charity Hospital — the medical school's principal teaching hospital — to shut down, he was responsible for finding spots around the state for the 15 fellows he had been teaching, his wife said.
“That came relatively easy,” she said, “because he had trained so many of the fellows that were practicing around the state.”
To ensure that everything went well, Glancy drove all over Louisiana to check on the fledgling physicians, his son said. “He didn't have to — he was 70 years old — but that was his style. I'm super-proud of him for that.”
A native of Cincinnati who grew up in Atlanta, Glancy earned a bachelor's degree at Emory University in Atlanta, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, the scholastic honor society. He earned a medical degree at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and did his residency in internal-medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.
From 1966 to 1972, he worked in cardiac pathology at the National Heart Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, where he was chief of cardiovascular diagnosis in the institute's cardiology branch for four years.
In addition to practicing medicine in New Orleans, Glancy was editor-in-chief of The Journal of the Louisiana State Medical Society for 20 years, and he received the society's Hall of Fame Award in 2019. He also published more than 400 articles in medical journals.
A former president of the Louisiana affiliate of the American Medical Association, Glancy has been honored with a lectureship and professorship at LSU Health Sciences Center.
In addition to his wife and son, survivors include another son, Harrison Mark Glancy, of London; a daughter, Helen Craig Glancy, of River Ridge; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
The memorial service and burial will be private. Greenwood Funeral Home is in charge
of arrangements.