In Memoriam: Robert J. Joynt, MD, PhD (1925-2012).

Abstract

O n his way to neurology grand rounds, Robert (Bob) Joynt, MD, PhD, died suddenly on April 13, 2012, at the age of 86 years in Rochester, New York. He is survived by his wife, Margaret; their 6 children Robert, Patricia, Mary, Anne, Thomas, and Kathleen and their spouses; and 9 grandchildren. Joynt was chief editor of the Archives of Neurology (1982-1997); a trifecta president of the American Academy of Neurology (1977-1979), American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (1979), and the American Neurological Association (1987-1988); and dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry and the first vice president and vice provost of the University of Rochester (UR) Medical Center (1985-1994). He was also elected a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (1989) and was honored by the UR as a Distinguished University Professor (1997) and the installation of the Robert J. Joynt Professorship in Experimental Therapeutics in Neurology (2011). The title of Distinguished University Professor is conferred only to a handful of individuals who have made substantial and varied contributions to their own scholarly field and to the university during the course of many years. Joynt was born the youngest of 4 children in Le Mars, Iowa. His father was a dentist and an active Democrat in an overwhelmingly Republican area. After high school, Joynt served as a staff sergeant and radio operator in the US Army Signal Corps, tracking troop movements in India (1946). He graduated from Westmar College (1949) and went on to receive his medical degree from the University of Iowa (1952), where he was first in his class. He interned at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal (1952-1953) and was a Fulbright Scholar at Cambridge University (1953-1954), where he developed an interest in hypothalamic neurophysiology before returning to the University of Iowa to complete a neurology residency (1957). In 1953, Joynt married the extraordinary Margaret McGivern, who would become a gifted and devoted family attorney and judge. This remarkable duo parented 6 children, who have also enjoyed successful careers and remarkable achievements. Joynt’s nascent interests in neurology and research at the University of Iowa were inspired by his teachers Adolph Sahs, a distinguished neurologist, and Arthur Benton, an innovative neuropsychologist. Both Sahs and Benton recognized Joynt’s skills, encouraged his graduate work on hypothalamic water regulation and the osmoreceptor, and served as research mentors and coauthors of early scholarly publications (eg, Neurology.1956;6:791-803 and Arch Neurol.1960;3:205221). He received his PhD in anatomy in 1963 from the University of Iowa. Word began to spread through academic neurology circles about the talented rookie who had farranging expertise from electroencephalography to meningitis and interests from osmoreceptors to public policy. George Engel, the father of the biopsychosocial model of medicine and chair of the neurology search committee at UR, traveled to Iowa to recruit Joynt. Joynt agreed to move to Rochester and succeeded the division head Paul Garvey to become the first chair of the newly established Department of Neurology. When Joynt arrived at the UR in 1966, the core faculty comprised Richard Satran, David Goldblatt, and David Marsh. Joynt deployed his personal magic and within the next 5 years retained or recruited Robert (Berch) Griggs (neuromuscular), Gerald Honch and Joshua Hollander (general neurology), Richard Moxley (neuromuscular), Gary Myers (child neurology), and Ira Shoulson (movement disorders). Soon thereafter, Robert Hamill, Robert Holloway, Ralph Jozefowicz, Karl Kieburtz, Roger Kurlan, Richard Rudick, and Charles Thornton joined the ranks of his expanding family of academic neurologists. Inspired by Joynt’s growing emphasis on education, training, and treatment, the faculty worked against the embedded neurology mantra of diagnose and adios. They shared a common interest and developed expertise focused on treatment and the experimental therapeutics of neurologic disorders. By 1985, the UR Department of Neurology had achieved a critical mass of faculty to advance neurologic therapeutics. Joynt was tapped to head the growing UR Medical Center, and Griggs subsequently became chair of the department that would soon lead the country in National Institutes of Health–sponsored neurologic research. Joynt oversaw the Medical Center when its Strong Memorial Hospital and School of Medicine were experiencing unparalleled growth in the setting of increased specialization, curricular consolidation, and technological advances. He also appreciated the emerging contributions of molecular biology and genetics, and their application to experimental therapeutics. By 1994, Joynt had ensured the sustained growth of the UR as a preeminent academic medical center. Joynt’s career spanned several generations of academic neurology. After concluding his academic leaderRobert J. Joynt, MD, PhD