Peter Kellaway, Ph.D. 1920–2003

Peter Kellaway, renowned neurophysiologist and epileptologist, died on June 25, 2003, in Houston, Texas, of complications of lymphoma, a disorder that he had battled for more than a decade. He was 82 years old and had worked actively until his death. Dr. Kellaway was an outstanding clinical neurophysiologist and innovative clinical investigator in the field of pediatric epilepsy. He was a strong proponent of a comprehensive approach to the care of children with epilepsy, an important contributor to the development of the basic tools necessary for clinical investigations of childhood epilepsy, and a leader in the development of epilepsy research programs that integrated basic science with clinical investigations, the better to understand the relation between brain maturation and epileptogenesis. Peter Kellaway was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. His father, Cecil Kellaway, was a stage and later a film actor who was nominated twice for Academy Awards and won a Golden Globe Award. As a child, Peter traveled extensively with his family as his father toured South Africa, Australia, India, and the South Pacific. They eventually settled in Melbourne, Australia, where Peter attended elementary and high school. There he excelled academically, became a competitive swimmer, and developed an interest in electronics—something that served him well later when he entered the emerging field of clinical neurophysiology. When his father's Hollywood career began to develop in the late 1930s, Peter moved with his family to Los Angeles. He attended Occidental College in Pasadena, where he earned both bachelor's and master's degrees. He then moved to Montreal, Canada, where he worked with Herbert Jasper and received a Ph.D. in neurophysiology in 1947 from McGill University. After a year on the faculty at McGill and the Montreal Neurological Institute, Peter moved to Houston in 1948, where he became a U.S. citizen and a member of the faculty of Baylor College of Medicine, an association that lasted 55 years. At Baylor, Peter played an important role in the development of clinical and basic neuroscience programs. He founded and served as Head of the Section of Neurophysiology in the Department of Neurology until 1998. He served as Chief of the Neurophysiology Services at The Methodist Hospital, the Texas Children's Hospital, and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, and he developed EEG laboratories at Hermann Hospital, Ben Taub General Hospital, and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He helped establish the Blue Bird Circle Clinic for Pediatric Neurology, which was affiliated first with The Methodist Hospital and later with Texas Children's Hospital, and he served as its Director from 1949 to 1960. He also served as Director of Baylor's National Institutes of Health–funded Epilepsy Research Center. He was instrumental in developing the Blue Bird Circle Developmental Neurogenetics Laboratory, the Clinical Research Center for Neonatal Seizures, and he worked with The Methodist Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine to create the Neurosensory Center. Peter's research contributions were enormous and included pioneering studies of neonatal seizures and infantile spasms; characterization of normal and abnormal patterns of EEG activity in neonates, infants, children, and adults; quantification of electrical and behavioral seizure phenomena; identification of genetic contributions to EEG activity and seizure disorders in children; and descriptions of intrinsic biorhythms that influence seizure occurrence. He worked to make the EEG a routine part of treating hospitalized infants and children with epilepsy and other neurologic disorders by bringing new technology and improved recording methods to the neonatal nursery, pediatric intensive care unit, and ward. His research was funded continuously by the National Institutes of Health for more than 40 years and resulted in more than 200 scientific publications. The first of these appeared in 1943, and the last—a book completed with colleagues 2 months before his death—was published posthumously in November 2003. Peter's career began when studies of children with epilepsy were limited and few, and he helped shape the modern era. It is not an exaggeration to say that there is hardly an area related to seizures and EEG in children that has not been influenced in some way by his contributions. Peter's research interests and expertise sometimes led to work in unusual environments. He conducted research on the EEG activity of astronauts during space flight, particularly during the Gemini space program, and on “aquanauts” during prolonged undersea exposure with the NASA Tektite program. In 1964, he was called to testify at the trial of Jack Ruby for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of John F. Kennedy, about the significance of Ruby's EEG findings. Peter received many honors for his work. He served as President of the American Epilepsy Society in 1960 and of the American EEG Society (now the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society) in 1964. The AES named him the William G. Lennox Lecturer in 1982 and also presented him with the William G. Lennox Award in 1996. In 1989, he became the first recipient of the new American Epilepsy Society–Milken Family Medical Foundation Distinguished Clinical Investigator Award. He was elected to membership in the American Neurological Association in 1966. Because of Peter's clinical interests, students and colleagues often forgot or failed to realize that he did not have a medical degree. He therefore took special pleasure in the honorary M.D. he was awarded in 1977 by the University of Gothenburg (Sweden). He was an honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (1985), Editor-in-Chief of Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology (1968–1971), Honorary President of the 13th International Congress of EEG and Clinical Neurophysiology (1993), and the Hans Berger Lecturer (1982) and recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award (1993), both at the Medical College of Virginia. He was instrumental in the establishment of the American Society of Electroencephalographic Technologists (now the American Society of Electroneurodiagnostic Technologists; ASET), when, in 1959, he served as Chairman of the Technician's Committee of the American Electroencephalographic Society, resulting in the recommendations for the establishment of a professional organization for technologists and a certification process, a prototype constitution for the proposed group, and the sponsoring of an organizational meeting that led to ASET's first annual meeting in 1960. He was recognized for his efforts when asked by ASET to deliver its Grass Lecture in 1989. Baylor recognized Peter's extraordinary contributions by establishing the Peter Kellaway Endowment for Research and the Peter Kellaway Lectureship in Epilepsy. The Methodist Hospital created the Peter Kellaway Library in Neuroscience. When Peter stepped down as Head of the Section of Neurophysiology, it was renamed in his honor. Perhaps Peter's greatest pleasure came from teaching. He taught students at Baylor from its earliest days as a medical school in Houston, and he established a postdoctoral training program in clinical neurophysiology that has produced generations of leaders both in the United States and abroad. He initiated national programs to educate physicians about EEG, and he helped establish the first professional society for EEG technologists. He especially loved reading EEGs with residents and fellows. He was a wonderful role model. Peter's career could not have been as happy or successful without the steadfast support and love of his wife of 45 years, JoAnne, who is an accomplished photographer specializing in underwater studies of Caribbean marine life. He was devoted to his five children and six grandchildren. His interests outside work were varied. At different periods of his life, they included scuba diving, platform diving, piloting private aircraft, boating, photography, classical music, gardening, and travel with his family. He also was committed to his “extended family”: the technologists, clerical staff, and clinical and scientific colleagues of the programs and laboratories he established and directed. Peter's career paralleled and was closely intertwined with the development of neurophysiology and epilepsy as fields of medicine, and with the emergence of the Texas Medical Center through the establishment and growth of its institutions, especially Baylor College of Medicine, The Methodist Hospital, Texas Children's Hospital, and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital. By the time of his death, he had helped to transform these fields of study, their supporting professional organizations, and the medical center institutions in which he worked. He respected the individuals who came to work and study with him, and he invariably extended to them the generosity and kindness that exemplified his life. He is greatly missed.

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