Robert Zollinger

Robert Milton Zollinger (September 4, 1903 – June 12, 1992) was an American general surgeon and professor of surgery at Ohio State University. He described Zollinger–Ellison syndrome. In 1947, he became a professor of surgery and chair of the department of surgery at Ohio State University.

Early life Zollinger was born in Millersport, Ohio, to Elmira and William Zollinger, neither of whom had completed high school. As a child, he ran a business delivering milk and vegetables from his family's farm to neighbors by pony and cart. When he enrolled at Ohio State University in 1921, he became the first graduate of his high school to attend university. He earned a B.A. in 1925 followed by an M.D. in 1927. Although he was only given a "C" grade in surgery, he said he would return to Ohio State one day as the head of surgery.

During the 1960s, Zollinger served as president of the American College of Surgeons (1961–62), chairman of the American Board of Surgery (1963), and president of the American Surgical Association (1965). He was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1965 and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1966.

He died in 1992, aged 88, from pancreatic cancer.