John Heffner

John E. Heffner, MD, is a pulmonary and critical care physician, educator, and researcher. Today, he and his wife, Anne, divide their time between Napa and San Diego, California, where their two sons' families live.

Over a 40-year career in academic medicine, he published over 350 medical journal articles and 21 medical books. He served as President of the American Thoracic Society and Chairman of the American Board of Pulmonary Medicine Pulmonary Board. The American College of Chest Physicians selected him as a Giant in Chest Medicine in 2018.

Looking back, Dr. Heffner considers his greatest achievements not the offices he held or the papers he published, but the relationships he built as a husband, father, grandfather, physician, teacher, and friend. He remains convinced that medicine is, above all, a craft—grounded in science, refined through observation, judgment, humility, and experience, and ultimately entrusted from one generation of physicians to the next. He now writes books for lay audiences and children as well to help younger generations adopt the life principles of character, integrity, and devotion to others necessary to become a craftsman at whatever one chooses to do.