Gerald Malcolm Stern b.1930 d.2018

Excerpt

Gerald Stern was a doyen of clinical neurology of international repute who made numerous significant contributions to neurology and the field of movement disorders. His early life and career in neurology have been documented in other published eulogies (Lees 2018a, b; Quinn 2019; Lees and Ockelford 2019)—we would urge you to read these as they tell a compelling story of his upbringing, his entry in to medicine, and the start of his love affair with clinical neurology that contains object lessons for those about to embark on a similar voyage. For those of you who never met Gerald or heard him speak and have not read any of his numerous publications, you should indulge yourselves by reading one of his later works (Stern 2011) or the Stanley Fahn Lecture presented at the MDS meeting in 2010 in Buenos Aries which you can watch on YouTube (Stern 2010) and an interview carried out by Niall Quinn (Quinn 2010) following that presentation. Then, you will realise what a master of the English language he was, his intellect, his ability to dissect and analyse complex areas of neurology, and how he used his wit and humour to entertain an audience. Gerald showed boundless enthusiasm for clinical neurology and was beloved by his patients who adored the time and patience which he showed in trying to understand their problems and to treat them to the best of his ability. Such was the respect of his patients that two apparently penniless, little old ladies left him substantial legacies with which he funded his research. Famed for his tact and diplomacy and courteous manner, he was sought out by the rich, the famous, Kings, Presidents, and Popes for his clinical skills. Asked why he preferred to practice private medicine rather than aim for a chair of neurology, he responded in typical fashion ‘My dear boy, I couldn’t possibly afford to be a professor’. A pioneer and a non-conformist—some would say rebel—he was involved in the earliest studies of L-dopa in Parkinson’s disease and subsequently in the introduction of dopamine agonist drugs, notably apomorphine and bromocriptine. Probably, he would have been most proud of his contribution to the introduction of the MAO-B inhibitor deprenyl in to the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, which included being his own guinea pig for testing the safety and effect of the drug—unthinkable in the modern era. …