Peter M. Vassilev, age 68, of Sherborn, died on Friday evening, July 3, 2015. It was a beautiful sunny day – peaceful and quiet. He was the loving husband of Marie K. Vassilev, with whom he shared 44 years of married life.
Peter was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, the son of the late Michael and Margarita Vassilev.
He received his medical degree in 1972 from the Medical Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria and his PhD in 1983 from the Bulgarian Academy of Science. He devoted his life to the research and study of electrophysiology – creating new experimental methods, applying it to new fields and publishing more than 60 research papers in journals such as Nature, Science, the American Journal of Physiology and many others.
After immigrating to the United States in 1983 with his family, he worked at Michigan State University and the University of Washington, and finally spent 24 years serving as the Director of the Electrophysiology Laboratory at Endocrine/Hypertension Division of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine (Physiology) at Harvard Medical School.
In addition to his professional passions, Peter was passionate about his Christian faith, hiking, running, nature, history and astronomy. He and his wife hosted the Bulgarian delegation at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. since 1991, and he loved hiking, was a long distance runner and had an encyclopedic knowledge of History and the Universe.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by their two children, Michael and his wife Rozalina of Bulgaria, and Peter and his wife Miriam of Brooklyn, New York; their four grandchildren, Beatrix, George, Michael and Ivana; his sister Stefka of Bulgaria; and his niece, Milena Pavlova, her husband Svetlin Abadjiev and their two children Michael and Daniel of Watertown.
Visitation will be held on Tuesday, July 7th at 4PM in the John Everett & Sons Funeral Home, 4 Park Street, at Natick Commons. A memorial service will begin at 7:00PM.
His family is currently organizing a fund for charitable donations to be made in his memory in support of the study of Electrophysiology. For anyone interested in making a donation, please email [email protected] and the family will be in touch with additional details.