Obituary
Obituary for M. Richard Koenigsberger, MD
On February 17, 2013, M. Richard Koenigsberger, a child neurologist who exemplified his profession, died of chronic pulmonary disease. Richard Koenigsberger was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, in 1933. He attended Stanford University, achieving a bachelor of science degree in chemistry in 1955, and then attended the University of Chicago Medical School graduating in 1959. A 1-year rotating internship followed by 2 years of pediatric residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City followed. Typical of Dick’s strong commitment to provide help where it was needed most, he interrupted his professional education to be among the first to perform service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa. He completed a National Institutes of Health (NIH) fellowship in neonatal neurology in 1964-1965, training at the Centre des Rechersches Neonatales (CRN) in Paris. At the CRN Clinique Baudeloque, Dick studied neonatal neurophysiology under the famous mentor Madame Collette Dreyfus-Brisac and carried this extraordinarily important experience and expertise back to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and the United States. He was subsequently able, among other things, to apply his rare expertise in examination of the neonate, ultimately publishing in 1973 an important paper characterizing the developmental changes in neurophysiology that distinguish myoneural junction function in the neonates of different gestational ages. Richard completed an (NIH-sponsored fellowship in neurology and pediatric neurology from 1965 to 1968 at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center under the mentorship of Dr Sydney Carter. At Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, Dick served as a co–principal investigator with Dr Carter of neurophysiologic studies of high-risk full-term and premature newborns (funded by United Cerebral Palsy). He stayed as a principal investigator on 3 successive United Cerebral Palsy grants and remained as a member of the faculty of Columbia University between 1968 and 1980. From 1980 to 1999, Richard served as the Chief of the Division of Child Neurology at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), New Jersey Medical School, New York, and New Jersey. In 2000, Dick returned to Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and until July 2012, he served as a Clinical Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics. His academic career was marked by the considerable leadership he exerted in the care of children, including his election as President of the Tristate Child Neurology Society (New York/New Jersey/Connecticut). Dick served as Director of Pediatric Neurology at the Harlem Hospital in New York and co-director of the neonatal
Journal of Child Neurology 28(11) 1535-1536 ª The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0883073813498304 jcn.sagepub.com
high-risk follow-up clinic at Babies & Children’s Hospital of New York. He was Director of Pediatric Neurology at the United Hospitals New York/New Jersey from 1980 to 1997 and Director of Pediatric Neurology at the Newark Beth Israel Medical Center over that same period. From 2000 to 2012 he was Director of the Pediatric Neurology Clinic at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, and his honors have included Teacher of the Year at Harlem Hospital (1972–1973) and the Santiago Ramo´n y Cajal Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Iberoamerican Academy of Pediatric Neurology (2000). He received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Child Neurology Society in 2012. Dick was a very active and exceptionally effective teacher and mentor for individuals training in Child Neurology in New York and New Jersey. In addition to his ward and clinic teaching expertise, he proved an exceptional teacher of neonatal electroencephalography. He served as an attending in neonatal neurology and his teaching activities involved medical students, neonatology fellows, neurology and pediatric residents. Dick’s devotion to teaching is legendary. He carried his expertise throughout the United States as well as to Mexico City, Maracaibo, Venezuela; Guatemala City, Guatemala; Puerto La Cruz; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Cancun, Mexico; Avila, Spain; Quito, Ecuador; Costa Rica; Toledo, Spain; Vina del Mar, Chile; Valencia, Spain; Cartagena, Colombia, and Bogota, Colombia. He was a natural linguist and fluent in both Spanish and French. In addition to teaching at each of these locales he demonstrated his exceptional bird identification skills. Dr Koenigsberger was the author of numerous original papers with particular emphasis placed on neonatal neurology, genetic diseases, muscle and nerve, infectious illnesses (especially HIV), and inheritable metabolic conditions. Dick was one of a group of child neurologists to identify and describe congenital HIV infections. A series of papers authored by Leon Epstein with Dick’s contributions described in meticulous detail the clinical and laboratory aspects as well as the pathophysiology of this condition.1-3 These papers have been cited with remarkable frequency. He also authored papers on the clinical manifestations of mitochondrial DNA depletion, on the effects of paternal imprinting on abnormalities of chromosome 5, and on the risk of spina bifida. He described the relationship between the risk for childhood stroke and HLA-B51.4 Dick had exceptional skill in the neonatal neurologic examination. His Pediatric Clinics of North America article in 1966 was perhaps the first superb summary of the neonatal neurologic examination published in the United States.5 None of us have seen another neurologist who could match Dick’s ability
Downloaded from jcn.sagepub.com at University of Manitoba Libraries on June 11, 2015
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to walk into the room of a sick child and immediately put that child at ease. He was charismatic, humble, and brilliant. His dedication to patients, families, and the careers of his trainees is unmatched. Selflessness defined the man. Dick is survived by his wife Dorcas, son Michael and daughters Nichol and Martine Cofi as well as his granddaughter Natalia. He will be missed. References 1. Epstein LG, Sharer LR, Oleske JM, et al. Neurologic manifestations of human immunodeficiency virus infection in children. Pediatrics. 1986;78:678-687. 2. Epstein LG, Sharer LR, Joshi VV, Fojas MM, Koenigsberger MR, Oleske JM. Progressive encephalopathy in children with acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Ann Neurol. 1985;17:488-496. 3. Mintz M, Rapaport R, Oleske JM, et al. Elevated serum levels of tumor necrosis factor are associated with progressive
encephalopathy in children with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Am J Dis Child. 1989;143:771-774. 4. Mintz M, Epstein LG, Koenigsberger MR. Idiopathic childhood stroke is associated with human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B51. Ann Neurol. 1992;31:675-677. 5. Koenigsberger MR.Judgment of fetal age. Neurologic evaluation. Pediatr Clin N Am. 1966;13:823-833.
Robert Rust, MD University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA Leon G. Epstein, MD Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA Michael Painter, MD Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Downloaded from jcn.sagepub.com at University of Manitoba Libraries on June 11, 2015
Obituary for M. Richard Koenigsberger, MD
On February 17, 2013, M. Richard Koenigsberger, a child neurologist who exemplified his profession, died of chronic pulmonary disease. Richard Koenigsberger was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, in 1933. He attended Stanford University, achieving a bachelor of science degree in chemistry in 1955, and then attended the University of Chicago Medical School graduating in 1959. A 1-year rotating internship followed by 2 years of pediatric residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City followed. Typical of Dick’s strong commitment to provide help where it was needed most, he interrupted his professional education to be among the first to perform service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa. He completed a National Institutes of Health (NIH) fellowship in neonatal neurology in 1964-1965, training at the Centre des Rechersches Neonatales (CRN) in Paris. At the CRN Clinique Baudeloque, Dick studied neonatal neurophysiology under the famous mentor Madame Collette Dreyfus-Brisac and carried this extraordinarily important experience and expertise back to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and the United States. He was subsequently able, among other things, to apply his rare expertise in examination of the neonate, ultimately publishing in 1973 an important paper characterizing the developmental changes in neurophysiology that distinguish myoneural junction function in the neonates of different gestational ages. Richard completed an (NIH-sponsored fellowship in neurology and pediatric neurology from 1965 to 1968 at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center under the mentorship of Dr Sydney Carter. At Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, Dick served as a co–principal investigator with Dr Carter of neurophysiologic studies of high-risk full-term and premature newborns (funded by United Cerebral Palsy). He stayed as a principal investigator on 3 successive United Cerebral Palsy grants and remained as a member of the faculty of Columbia University between 1968 and 1980. From 1980 to 1999, Richard served as the Chief of the Division of Child Neurology at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), New Jersey Medical School, New York, and New Jersey. In 2000, Dick returned to Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and until July 2012, he served as a Clinical Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics. His academic career was marked by the considerable leadership he exerted in the care of children, including his election as President of the Tristate Child Neurology Society (New York/New Jersey/Connecticut). Dick served as Director of Pediatric Neurology at the Harlem Hospital in New York and co-director of the neonatal
Journal of Child Neurology 28(11) 1535-1536 ª The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0883073813498304 jcn.sagepub.com
high-risk follow-up clinic at Babies & Children’s Hospital of New York. He was Director of Pediatric Neurology at the United Hospitals New York/New Jersey from 1980 to 1997 and Director of Pediatric Neurology at the Newark Beth Israel Medical Center over that same period. From 2000 to 2012 he was Director of the Pediatric Neurology Clinic at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, and his honors have included Teacher of the Year at Harlem Hospital (1972–1973) and the Santiago Ramo´n y Cajal Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Iberoamerican Academy of Pediatric Neurology (2000). He received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Child Neurology Society in 2012. Dick was a very active and exceptionally effective teacher and mentor for individuals training in Child Neurology in New York and New Jersey. In addition to his ward and clinic teaching expertise, he proved an exceptional teacher of neonatal electroencephalography. He served as an attending in neonatal neurology and his teaching activities involved medical students, neonatology fellows, neurology and pediatric residents. Dick’s devotion to teaching is legendary. He carried his expertise throughout the United States as well as to Mexico City, Maracaibo, Venezuela; Guatemala City, Guatemala; Puerto La Cruz; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Cancun, Mexico; Avila, Spain; Quito, Ecuador; Costa Rica; Toledo, Spain; Vina del Mar, Chile; Valencia, Spain; Cartagena, Colombia, and Bogota, Colombia. He was a natural linguist and fluent in both Spanish and French. In addition to teaching at each of these locales he demonstrated his exceptional bird identification skills. Dr Koenigsberger was the author of numerous original papers with particular emphasis placed on neonatal neurology, genetic diseases, muscle and nerve, infectious illnesses (especially HIV), and inheritable metabolic conditions. Dick was one of a group of child neurologists to identify and describe congenital HIV infections. A series of papers authored by Leon Epstein with Dick’s contributions described in meticulous detail the clinical and laboratory aspects as well as the pathophysiology of this condition.1-3 These papers have been cited with remarkable frequency. He also authored papers on the clinical manifestations of mitochondrial DNA depletion, on the effects of paternal imprinting on abnormalities of chromosome 5, and on the risk of spina bifida. He described the relationship between the risk for childhood stroke and HLA-B51.4 Dick had exceptional skill in the neonatal neurologic examination. His Pediatric Clinics of North America article in 1966 was perhaps the first superb summary of the neonatal neurologic examination published in the United States.5 None of us have seen another neurologist who could match Dick’s ability
Downloaded from jcn.sagepub.com at University of Manitoba Libraries on June 11, 2015
1536
Journal of Child Neurology 28(11)
to walk into the room of a sick child and immediately put that child at ease. He was charismatic, humble, and brilliant. His dedication to patients, families, and the careers of his trainees is unmatched. Selflessness defined the man. Dick is survived by his wife Dorcas, son Michael and daughters Nichol and Martine Cofi as well as his granddaughter Natalia. He will be missed. References 1. Epstein LG, Sharer LR, Oleske JM, et al. Neurologic manifestations of human immunodeficiency virus infection in children. Pediatrics. 1986;78:678-687. 2. Epstein LG, Sharer LR, Joshi VV, Fojas MM, Koenigsberger MR, Oleske JM. Progressive encephalopathy in children with acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Ann Neurol. 1985;17:488-496. 3. Mintz M, Rapaport R, Oleske JM, et al. Elevated serum levels of tumor necrosis factor are associated with progressive
encephalopathy in children with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Am J Dis Child. 1989;143:771-774. 4. Mintz M, Epstein LG, Koenigsberger MR. Idiopathic childhood stroke is associated with human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B51. Ann Neurol. 1992;31:675-677. 5. Koenigsberger MR.Judgment of fetal age. Neurologic evaluation. Pediatr Clin N Am. 1966;13:823-833.
Robert Rust, MD University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA Leon G. Epstein, MD Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA Michael Painter, MD Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Downloaded from jcn.sagepub.com at University of Manitoba Libraries on June 11, 2015
