Robert M. Rogers, a nationally recognized leader in research and training in pulmonary medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, died yesterday at his home in Oakland from complications from prostate cancer. He was 75.

Dr. Rogers came to Pittsburgh in 1980 from the University of Oklahoma, and worked previously at the University of Pennsylvania, where he founded the first respiratory intensive care unit on the East Coast. He would start from the ground up in Pittsburgh, too, beefing up the medical center's small pulmonary, allergy and critical care division.

Dr. Rogers "built a division from scratch," said Michael Donahoe, associate chief of clinical programs at UPMC's pulmonary medicine division. "He recruited faculty and built a division which is now recognized as one of the tops for pulmonary and critical care in the nation."

As a professor at Pitt, he became known for teaching a generation of local specialists -- more than 90 of them at last count -- about treating lung diseases. "Half the pulmonologists in Pittsburgh he's trained at one time or another," Dr. Donahoe said.

He also became nationally known for developing the leading treatment for a rare disease called pulmonary alveolar proteinosis, in which abnormal material accumulates in the lungs. Dr. Rogers' treatment, called lavage, involved flooding lungs with saline to wash out the material.

Dr. Rogers would lecture about the lavage treatment nationwide, often using cartoons drawn by his son Rob, the editorial cartoonist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Over the last two decades he would develop his own interest in art, eventually winning accolades from the American Association of Physician Artists.

Robert Mark Rogers received his bachelor's degree from Philadelphia's LaSalle University in 1956 and his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1960.

He became the chief of the University of Oklahoma's pulmonary division in 1972, before moving to Pittsburgh eight years later. He received major respiratory medicine awards including the Presidential Citation from the American College of Chest Physicians in 1998 and the Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Thoracic Society in 2002.

He took up painting in the mid-1980s. Even after beating his first diagnosis with prostate cancer in 1994, Dr. Rogers would travel to painting workshops across the country, packing a minivan with paints, canvases and other art supplies.

Dr. Rogers would win painting awards from the Physician Artists association in 1996, 1997, 2001 and 2002. It was a far cry from many years before, when Rob followed his father to Pittsburgh, to get his master's in fine arts from Carnegie Mellon University and Dr. Rogers stood looking at some of his son's paintings.

"He said, 'You're so lucky to be able to express yourself this way. That's something I would never be able to do.' But then he did," Mr. Rogers said yesterday.

In addition to Rob, Dr. Rogers is survived by his wife, Sandra, of Oakland; daughter Janet Marie Gidley of Virginia Beach, Va.; sons Brad of Uniontown and David of Oakland; sister Clara Schneberger of Philadelphia; and brothers John of Maryland and James and Joseph, both of Philadelphia.

A memorial service will be held at a later date.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Bob and Sandy Rogers Endowed Fund in PACCM, c/o Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, 3459 Fifth Ave., 628 NW, Pittsburgh 15213.