Whether he was wielding a scalpel in Minnesota or leading a cattle drive in Arizona, Herb Ward had a talent for making himself at home in challenging surroundings.

He could fly a helicopter one day and perform open-heart surgery the next. He loved to hunt and to canoe in the Boundary Waters, and he was also a lifelong opera buff who attended Richard Wagner's entire Ring cycle. He played the mandolin with a series of little-known folk-rock groups in the Twin Cities, and he was scheduled to play a gig on May 11 but died the day before after a short battle with cancer. He was 71.

"You could interview six people who knew him in all these different circles and you'd think they were talking about six different people," said Lou Bartholome, who started playing guitar with Ward in 1972. "The one thing everybody would say about him, though, is that he brought a spirit of adventure and sharing to whatever he was doing."

Born in St. Paul, Ward's parents were both top executives with the Brown & Bigelow advertising firm. As a boy, he spent his summers working at his family's cattle ranch in Arizona, where he rode his first horse and a cowboy taught him how play the guitar and mandolin.

Ward was independently wealthy at a young age, joined the U.S. Navy Reserve to stay out of the Vietnam War and pursued a degree in astrophysics before turning to medicine.

"He could have been a playboy of the western world, but instead he decided he was going to do good things for people," said longtime friend Bill Tilton.

In 1977, Ward graduated with his medical degree from the University of Minnesota, where he became a tenured professor and chief of the division of cardiothoracic surgery. He oversaw a team of eight surgeons who performed 1,500 open-heart surgeries a year at four Twin Cities hospitals.

"In the mid-2000s, Herb and one of his colleagues were the principal investigators in several trials that changed clinical practices around the world," said Dr. Rose Kelly, a longtime colleague who now oversees the cardiothoracic division. "Herb loved to bring along a new surgeon and teach them how to think independently and help them become great surgeons."

Ward liked to joke that he met his wife, Lori, "over the drapes," as he performed heart surgeries at the local VA hospital.

"I always wanted to work with him because he had a great stereo and he played great music," said Lori, a retired nurse anesthetist. Lori said she and Herb worked together for years before going out on their first date.

"I was in my middle 30s, and Herb — as one of my friends said — was two dog years older than I am," Lori said. "Herb was 50 when our first child was born. He was an amazing family man. We took the kids skiing in South America and mountain biking in Chile. He was super adventurous."

Though he stepped down from his leadership role at the U in 2017, Ward continued to perform surgeries until a few months before his death.

He also continued playing music with One Brown Shoe, his most recent trio with Bartholome and music veteran Dave Boquist.

"Herb was probably the most generous musician I ever met," Bartholome said. "He could play with anyone — it didn't matter how good or bad they were. Everyone who played with Herb had a good time."

In addition to his wife, Ward is survived by his son, Charlie Ward, and his daughter, Jazz Ward. A celebration of life will take place on June 7, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Promenade Ballroom at the St. Paul Hotel.