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Show NANOS NEWS Jonathan D. Wirtschafter, MD ( 1935- 2004) On August 9, 2004, our colleague Jonathan D. Wirtschafter died at age 69 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. A memorial service was held on August 11,2004 at Temple Israel in Minneapolis, with Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman officiating. The internment took place at Adath Yeshurun Cemetery in Minneapolis. At the memorial service, Jonathan was remembered as a loving parent and spouse, friend, and teacher. He was a loving and caring husband to his wife Carol and a loving father to his five children, Joshua, Jacob, Benjamin, David, and Brooke. He was also the proud grandparent of 10 grandchildren. Jonathan was born in 1935 and grew up in Cleveland. He graduated from Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 1956 and from Harvard Medical School in 1960. He served as a neurology resident at Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland from 1961 to 1963 and as an ophthalmology resident at the Wilmer Eye Institute of Johns Hopkins University from 1963 to 1966. The next year, he was a neurology fellow at J Neuro- Ophthalmol, Vol. 24, No. 4, 2004 the New York Neurological Institute of Columbia- Presbyterian Medical Center. His first academic post was at the University of Kentucky in 1967, where he started an ophthalmology residency training program, rose to the rank of full professor in 1972, and served as the first chairman of the ophthalmology department from 1974 to 1977. During a 1- year sabbatical leave in Israel in 1973, he drove a Volkswagen bus across Europe with his wife and their five children, the youngest being 18 months old. When the Yom Kippur War broke out that year, he interrupted his sabbatical to work the night shift at a Jerusalem hospital. He was appointed to the ophthalmology faculty at the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1977 and served as director of the neuro- ophthalmology service until his retirement from full- time clinical practice in 2001. He held joint appointments in the neurology and neurosurgery departments. Ophthalmology residents at the University of Minnesota chose him as Teacher of the Year on four occasions. In the neuro- ophthalmic community, he was known for his interests in treatment of blepharospasm and hemifacial spasm. He pioneered the use of doxorubicin, currently in clinical trials. As director of the neuro-ophthalmology/ orbit/ oculoplastics fellowship at Minnesota, he trained 13 fellows between 1981 and 2001. He served on the editorial board of Survey of Ophthalmology, Journal of Neuro- Ophthalmology, and Perspectives in Ophthalmology. The holder of several patents and the recipient of many research grants, some of which supported his pioneering work on doxorubicin chemomymectomy, he was an author or co- author of 148 journal articles. He also co- authored several textbooks published by the American Academy of Ophthalmology, including Ophthalmic Anatomy ( 1981), Computed Tomography: An Atlas for Ophthalmologists ( 1982), and Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Computed Tomography: Clinical Neuro- Orbital Anatomy ( 1992). He was an active member of the Benign Essential Blepharospasm Foundation, which provides research grants, education, and psychosocial support to patients with facial spasm disorders. He was an active member of NANOS, serving as president from 1996 to 1998. In 2004, he received the NANOS Distinguished Service Award. After retiring from active clinical practice in 2001, he continued to participate in teaching, laboratory research, clinical trials, and scientific writing. Even as his illness began to limit his mobility, he persevered in research. His most recent work, performed in conjunction with Linda 353 JNeuro- Ophthalmol, Vol. 24, No. 4, 2004 NANOSNews McLoon, PhD, and Deborah Ferrington, PhD, demonstrated continuous myofiber remodeling in adult extraocular muscles ( 1). In 2003, fellow faculty members in the ophthalmology department at the University of Minnesota, as well as colleagues and friends, honored his many contributions to teaching, research, and patient care with the establishment of the Jonathan D. Wirtschafter Visiting Lectureship. Donations to the lectureship may be sent to the Vision Foundation, University of Minnesota Ophthalmology Department, Box 493, 420 Delaware Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455. Howard D. Pomeranz, MD, PhD Minneapolis, Minnesota REFERENCE 1. Wirtschafter JD, Ferrington DA, McLoon LK. Continuous remodeling of adult extraocular muscles as an explanation for selective craniofacial vulnerability in oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy. JNeuroophthalmol. 2004; 24: 62- 7. 354 © 2004 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins |
