Denton Arthur Cooley (August 22, 1920 – November 18, 2016) was an American cardiothoracic surgeon famous for performing the first implantation of a total artificial heart.

At Johns Hopkins, he worked with Dr. Alfred Blalock and assisted in the first "Blue Baby" procedure to correct an infant's congenital heart defect.

[5] In 1946, Cooley was called to active duty with the Army Medical Corps and served as chief of surgical services at the station hospital in Linz, Austria.

[6][7][8] In the 1950s, Cooley returned to Houston to become associate professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine and to work at its affiliate institution, The Methodist Hospital.

[6][11] His skill as a surgeon was demonstrated by successfully performing numerous bloodless open-heart surgeries on Jehovah's Witnesses patients beginning in the early 1960s.

Founding President Philip S. Chua had envisioned this exclusive society to foster academic, professional, and personal camaraderie among cardiac surgeons in the United States and around the world through scientific seminars and symposia.

The practice and training facility of the UT men's and women's basketball teams, the Denton A. Cooley Pavilion, which opened in 2003, was named in his honor.