February 23, 2001
William H. Masters, M.D., who with his research collaborator and former wife Virginia Johnson Masters revolutionized sexual therapy and research, died Feb. 16, 2001, at the Tucson medical.html Center Hospice in Tucson, Ariz., of complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 85.
He was professor emeritus of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at the School of Medicine.
Masters received a medical.html degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine in New York, where he became interested in studying human sexuality. After Masters' mentor alerted him that taking on the subject of human sexuality would be controversial, he spent years accruing credentials in obstetrics and gynecology at the Washington University's School of Medicine to pursue his goals of making the field legitimate science.
Masters did internships and residencies at the School of Medicine and what is now Barnes-Jewish Hospital. He joined the medical.html school faculty and in 1955 began publishing his human sexuality research. He later became a professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at the School of Medicine. He also served as director of the medical.html school's Division of Reproductive Biology.
Masters' self-funded research revolutionized sexual therapy with his book "Human Sexual Inadequacy," published in 1970. The Masters and Johnson Institute he co-founded operated in St. Louis until Masters retired in 1994. A separate organization, the Masters and Johnson Clinic, continues to serve patients in St. Louis.
Masters is survived by his wife, Geraldine B. Masters of Tucson, Ariz.; a daughter, Sarah Masters Paul of Weston, Conn.; a son, Howie Masters of New York City; a brother, Francis Masters of Kansas City, Mo.; and two grandsons.
Memorial contributions may be made to a charity of the donor's choice.
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