He was the first chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and is credited with saving the lives of thousands of soldiers maimed during World War II.
As a young doctor, he used a new method he developed with Oliver Cope to treat survivors of the Cocoanut Grove fire in November, 1942.
From 1943 to 1947, Cannon served in the U.S. Army as chief of the plastic surgical section of Valley Forge General Hospital in Pennsylvania, which cared for casualties from Europe and the Pacific.
His daughter, Sarah Cannon Holden, said his group performed more than 15,000 operations.
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