Oral history interview with Richard Mullins, M.D., conducted on November 30, 2011 by Matt Simek at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, OR. This interview documents Richard Mullins’s account of the development of the Starr‑Edwards mechanical heart valve. Mullins focuses on the collaboration between engineer M. Lowell Edwards and cardiac surgeon Albert Starr, tracing their personal backgrounds, training, and the circumstances that brought them together in Portland. He describes Edwards’s career as an inventor and machinist, Starr’s surgical education and early work in open‑heart surgery, and the technical and clinical challenges involved in creating a reliable prosthetic heart valve. The interview covers laboratory experimentation, early animal trials, initial human implantations, setbacks and failures, and the eventual clinical success of the Starr‑Edwards valve beginning in 1960. Additional topics include funding and patent decisions, the formation of Edwards Laboratories, wider adoption of the valve, and its long‑term use and legacy in cardiac surgery.
