Dr. Jeffrey Shogan, director of business services and chief business officer for UPMC Cancer Centers, was a driving force behind the growth and expansion of the cancer treatment network.

"He was nothing less than visionary," said Dr. Peter Ellis, a medical oncologist and the director of the medical oncology network for UPMC Cancer Centers. "Jeff Shogan was not only a brilliant man, and there are a lot of brilliant men, but he also had brilliance combined with vision. He could never accept things as they were. He could never accept the status quo. He always wanted to look at things and make them better."

Dr. Shogan died Saturday from cardiac arrest. He was 56.

In 1989, Dr. Stanley M. Marks, now the director of clinical services and the chief medical officer for UPMC Cancer Centers, recruited Dr. Shogan to develop a bone marrow transplant program at Allegheny General Hospital. Dr. Shogan also helped manage a private practice group, which grew to be one of the largest in the country, Dr. Marks said.

In 2000, the two doctors were recruited to bring their group to UPMC to run the clinical cancer program. They developed the UPMC cancer delivery system into the largest in the country, said Dr. Marks.

Dr. Shogan had an international vision for the cancer network and oversaw the development of two cancer centers in Ireland and was also working on developing UPMC cancer programs in the United Kingdom and Turkey.

Thailand, where he spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer before attending medical school, captivated him, Dr. Marks said. He loved the Thai people and learned the language and last year visited the country three times to work with refugees and children at an orphanage. He planned to open a charitable medical clinic there and was in the midst of raising funds for the project.

"There was no project too big," Dr. Ellis said.

Jeffrey E. Shogan was born Oct. 12, 1953, in Monroeville. He received his bachelor's degree in philosophy and psychology from Yale University in 1975, and after two years in the Peace Corps, spent a year in Nigeria with Westinghouse Electric Corp.

He earned a medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1982, then completed his internship and residency at UPMC Presbyterian and did a fellowship at the Duke University Medical Center.

He spent one year at Duke on the faculty in the bone marrow transplant program, then returned to Pittsburgh to work with Allegheny General's program.

In addition to his position at UPMC Cancer Centers, Dr. Shogan was a clinical professor of medicine at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, chairman of the board for D3 Advanced Radiation Planning Services and a member of the Pittsburgh Clinical Research Network Scientific Advisory Board. He chaired the board of Cancer Treatment Services International, which develops treatment centers around the world.

Even with all his other job responsibilities, Dr. Shogan continued to see patients up through last week, Dr. Ellis said.

"Dr. Shogan was a wonderful physician -- exquisitely sensitive to the physical and emotional needs of his many patients -- and a masterful oncologist," Arthur S. Levine, the senior vice chancellor for health sciences and dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, said in a statement. "He was widely admired by his colleagues, both locally and nationally, and he died at much too early an age. He will be missed by many people, both now and for years to come, and all will be saddened by his death."

His job involved a great deal of traveling, but Dr. Shogan was a "very close family guy," Dr. Marks said. He became involved in his wife Jacqueline Shogan's successful campaign to become a state Superior Court justice. His daughter, Alyson, was following in his footsteps, first attending Yale University and now a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Marks said.

Last year, he took his sons Jeffrey and Jack to see the Steelers win the Super Bowl. But they only had two tickets, Dr. Marks said, so he sent his sons to the game and he watched it from the hotel room.

Dr. Shogan's death came as a surprise, Dr. Marks said. His friend had lost 75 pounds over the last several months and "was on a health kick."

In addition to his wife and three children, survivors include his father, Andrew L. Shogan, of Murrysville, and his brother, Andrew W. Shogan, of Berkeley, Calif.,

Visitation will be from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow and Wednesday at Jobe Funeral Home in Monroeville. A Mass will be celebrated Thursday at 11 a.m. in St. Colman Church in Turtle Creek.

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