William A. Scovill, who taught surgery at University of Maryland Medical School and was later head of general surgery at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, died of a heart attack Dec. 25 at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Pikesville resident was 84.

Born in Battle Creek, Michigan, he was the son of Dr. Henry Aaron Scovill, a physician, and his wife, Winifred “Peg” Williams, a kindergarten teacher and musician. He was a 1962 graduate of the University of Michigan, where he played trombone in the Michigan Marching Band.

He was also a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Medicine and did his internship and a year of residency at the University of Maryland Medical Center. During the Vietnam War years he served in the Navy in the Mediterranean.

He completed his general surgical residency at the University of Illinois in Chicago and was then an Albany Medical College medical professor.

“There was not a mean steak in Bill Scovill,” said Dr. James Sarveh, a colleague from Albany. “He was a sweet and kind man.”

Dr. Scovill spent most of his career in academic surgery at the University of Maryland Medical School, where he pioneered laparoscopic procedures for gall bladder operations. He tried the then-new technique on pigs before it became accepted in general practice.

“Bill was excellent in a crisis and great in moments of stress. He maintained a level of calm in the operating room,” said Dr. Elliott Badder, former Mercy Medical Center chief of surgery. “He left a wonderful group of residents at the University of Maryland whom he trained and supervised.”

He met his future wife, MaryBeth Peach, an operating room nurse, in Mercy Medical Center’s operating room.

In 1997 he became head of general surgery and vice-chairman of the department of surgery at Greater Baltimore Medical Center.

“He was genuine, kind and giving. He minimized everything,” said his wife, MaryBeth Peach Scovill. “If something was a problem, he found the positive side. He loved life, his family, friends and his dogs.”

His son, William Henry Scovill said, “He would sacrifice his own comfort for yours. He was a skilled and gifted surgeon … and an empathetic and caring doctor with a renowned bedside manner.”

He retired in 2005 and in his spare time he read, played piano and tennis.

Dr. Scovill was a member of the American College of Surgeons and was a past governor of the Society of University Surgeons, Association for Academic Surgery.

A life celebration will be held at 2 p.m. Feb. 2 at Linwoods, 25 Crossroads Drive in Owings Mills.

He is survived by his wife of 35 years, MaryBeth Peach Scovill; a daughter, Dr. Nellie Susan Scovill Damrauer, of Boulder, Colorado; a son, William Henry Scovill, of San Francisco; a sister, Susan Fries, of Irvine, California; and four grandchildren. His first wife, Linda Jerry Hammond, died in 1986.