Obituary

Obituary for Professor Dewey Ziegler

With the passing of Professor Dewey Ziegler in the month of September, the specialty of headache has lost one of its earliest pioneers. Dr. Ziegler was an acclaimed neurologist at the University of Kansas (KU), where he was an active faculty member from 1958 until his death. He served as the inaugural chair of the Department of Neurology from 1974 to 1985. As Professor Emeritus he continued to conduct research, teach, and to see patients until a few years prior to his death. The Gertrude and Dewey Ziegler Professorship in Neurology is currently held by Dr. Richard Barohn, Chair of Neurology.

Dr. Ziegler trained in the golden era of clinical neurology in the United States. As was usual at the time, he had formal training and board certification in both neurology and psychiatry. He was a staff psychiatrist at the U.S. Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, and the U.S. Naval Hospital in San Diego prior to starting his neurology training at the New York Neurological Institute in 1948, under the legendary H. Houston Merritt, M.D. His neurological career was a distinguished one. He was vice president of the American Neurological Association in 1972 to 1973, president of the American Academy of Neurology from 1979 to 1981, and served on the board of directors of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology from 1975 through 1983.

As one of the leaders who helped establish the specialty of neurology in the United States, Dr. Zeigler trained a generation of neurologists. Notably in the migraine field he inspired eminent researchers such as Drs. Jim Couch and Arieh Kuritsky. A prolific author, he published 45 book chapters, 150 articles and made important and numerous presentations at national and international congresses. I first met him at one of the headache congresses I attended early in my US academic career. As a prominent academic leader, his presence at these meetings was extremely reassuring and sustaining to me but, most importantly, meaningful to a specialty not rated of great importance by US neurologists of the time.

Dr. Ziegler’s research interests were wide based. He published extensively with his colleague Dr. Ruth Hassanien on a range of topics, making original observations on stroke and movement disorders. Along with Dr. Jim Couch, he and Dr. Hassanien performed revelatory and seminal studies on comorbidity of migraine with depression and pain, on platelet and serotonin function, and established the importance of amitriptyline and non-steroidal drugs in migraine prophylaxis, to name but a few of his contributions.

Professor Zeigler was revered by all in the migraine world who knew him; patrician and gentleman are words that come readily to mind when asked to describe him. He was a modest and understated man whose many accomplishments were never trumpeted to the skies as nowadays. Though sometimes appearing somewhat formidable to his juniors by virtue of his professional stature, he had in fact a kind, gentle, wry and quick sense of humor. For example, excited by the research results he was presenting at the second International Headache Society (his) convention in Munich, I fell and fractured a rib while rushing to show a slide of data that replicated his findings. Pausing at the podium for only a moment, with mild astonishment he expressed gratitude that I clearly regarded his study as a “crashing success.” His humor kindly and purposely served to distract the audience and alleviate my embarrassment. I spent further time with him when I had the brief privilege of acting as Chair of Neurology at KU after Dr. Bill Koller stepped down. His wise and kind support was as personally sustaining and unfailing as when we first met.

In his personal life, Dr. Ziegler was a life-long lover of nature, an avid gardener, birder, and a longtime member of the Sierra Club.

His wife, Gertrude, often attended headache conferences with him; they made a stately couple. She died in 1995, preceding him in death by too many years. He grieved her passing deeply, but quietly as was his nature. Being father to three daughters and grandfather to seven grandchildren must have eased his pain, but it was said he carried the sadness in his eyes all his remaining days. Now our eyes too are saddened and the specialty of headache is diminished by losing him.