Dr. Kenneth Heilman, a founder in the field of behavioral neurology, dies at 86

Press release from UF Health

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Kenneth M. Heilman, M.D., a founder of the field of behavioral neurology who impacted generations of young neurologists worldwide and served the University of Florida College of Medicine for over 50 years, died July 15. He was 86.

Behavioral neurology is a subspecialty focused on memory and cognitive disorders, and under Heilman’s leadership, UF developed one of the earliest fellowship programs in the field. To date, nearly 100 trainees have completed UF’s fellowship program and then spread across the world to practice and pass on the lessons to up-and-coming physicians.

A researcher in disorders involving attention, emotion, motor programming, language, and memory, Heilman left a prolific literary legacy, writing or editing 22 books, more than 115 chapters, and over 670 journal publications, with more than 67,000 citations .

“His work and that of his trainees extended to almost all areas of neurology. His studies of cognition in dementia, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and stroke were huge contributions to the field,” said Steven T. DeKosky, M.D., deputy director of UF’s McKnight Brain Institute, who was a medical student and then a resident under Heilman. “He was one of the first to establish correlations of cognitive and behavioral changes with brain changes using new, non-invasive imaging techniques, aiding our understanding of brain-behavior relationships in living patients. We owe him a great debt.”

In 1998, Heilman was in the first group of UF faculty members to be named a distinguished professor and remains one of only five in the history of the UF College of Medicine to receive the honor.

“Behavioral neurology fellows today all train on Dr. Heilman’s textbook,” said Michael S. Jaffee, M.D., chair of UF’s Department of Neurology and a specialist in behavioral neurology. “My personal copy is worn and still displayed in a prominent spot on my shelf, 30 years after my training. Throughout my career, he has been a personal role model to me.”

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Heilman enrolled at the University of Virginia and after just three years was accepted to medical school, skipping a bachelor’s and going on to graduate with his medical degree in 1963. He trained for two years in internal medicine at Cornell University Medical Center, and in 1965 he married Patricia Phillips Heilman of Pineville, West Virginia.

During the Vietnam War, he joined the U.S. Air Force and, at the rank of captain, deployed as chief of medicine at a NATO hospital in Izmir, Turkey. After discharge, Heilman completed a neurology residency and fellowship at Harvard, then joined the UF faculty in 1970 as an assistant professor. Over the years, he became a full professor and endowed chair, the James E. Rooks Jr. Professor of Neurology.

For many years, he served as chief of the neurology service at the Gainesville VA Medical Center, now named the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center, and as director of the behavioral neurology-neuropsychology program and UF’s Center for Neuropsychological Studies.

“He made an enormous contribution to behavioral neuroscience, mapping out the higher neural functions of the brain,” said Stephen Nadeau, M.D., a UF professor of neurology who in 1982 was a behavioral neurology fellow under Heilman and went on to become one of his research collaborators. “He was also the most effective mentor, leaving the world with a generation of people who trained with him and who will continue to work toward a comprehensive understanding of how the brain enables language, emotion, executive function, memory, and visual-spatial function.”

Heilman was in the inaugural group of UF Research Foundation Professors in 1997 and again awarded the professorship in 2005. He received both the UF College of Medicine’s Lifetime Achievement Award and Clinical Research Award.

“He wrote seminal papers on aphasia, apraxia, emotional function, and hemispatial neglect, among many others, and later turned his eye toward creativity and the brain, asking questions about what makes the creative brain different and how to measure it,” said Jean Cibula, M.D., a professor in UF’s Department of Neurology who was among Heilman’s fellows.

Upon winning the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008, Heilman reflected on his career and journey. He described an experience as a medical student observing a patient who had suffered a stroke, and though tests showed the patient had full visual fields, he could not see food that was on the left side of his plate. Heilman was intrigued to understand how the brain pays attention — and how that process could change amid injury or disease.

“The two things I hate the most are death and suffering,” he said in an interview with UF at the time. “The only way to make war against them is to do research and take care of patients.”

Among other notable honors, Heilman received the Society for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology Outstanding Achievement Award; American Academy of Neurology Wartenberg Award; International Neuropsychology Society Distinguished Career Award; and National Academy of Neuropsychology Lifetime Achievement Award.

At UF, he was among the first to model true interdisciplinary collaboration across neuropsychology, speech, anthropology, linguistics, and neurology, said UF Health neuropsychologist Dawn Bowers, Ph.D., who was one of Heilman’s first doctoral students and went on to work closely with him for decades.

“Ken’s excitement about ideas and invigorating discussions about brain mechanisms inspired me and several generations of graduate students and fellows,” Bowers said. “He was a powerful intellectual force and made us all feel that we were tackling some of the greatest questions in the universe.”

Bowers’ husband, Russell Bauer, Ph.D., was also among a team developed by Heilman and the late Edward Valenstein, M.D., that turned Gainesville into a nexus for behavioral neurology.

“Ken’s remarkable personality, a mix between a Brooklyn streetfighter and an inspiring and devoted mentor, was one of his signature characteristics,” said Bauer, a professor emeritus of clinical and health psychology. “He will mostly be remembered for his astute clinical mind, his artful skills at observing behavior, and his faithful and lifelong support of his fellows and trainees.”

Throughout his life, Heilman, in his trademark bowtie, held on to his Brooklyn accent, his warm welcome to new learners, and his dry sense of humor.

“He was brilliant and kind and generous, and in addition to being an accomplished physician, he was also an incredible father and husband,” said his daughter Eden Heilman.

In 2001, Heilman and other donors established the Rosalind Heilman Memorial Research Endowment Fund , in honor of his mother, to support research by UF medical students, residents, and fellows. In his memory, his family has changed the name to the Kenneth M. Heilman and Rosalind Heilman Memorial Fund.

Survivors include Patricia, his wife of almost 59 years; his children David, Nicole and Eden; and five grandchildren. A celebration of life is being planned for a later date in Gainesville.

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