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Dr. C. David Marsden was one of the leading researchers of PD. I learned of his death only yesterday. Phil Tompkins ------------------------------------------------------------------ NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE 21-Oct-1998 Wednesday Dr. C. David Marsden, a British neurologist who was one of the world's leading authorities on movement disorders like Parkinson's disease, died Sept. 29 at his American residence in Columbia, Md. A resident of Ash, in Kent, England, he was 60 and had just begun a one-year sabbatical, his first, at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The cause of death was a heart attack, said Robin Elliott, executive director of the Parkinson's Disease Foundation in New York. Dr. Marsden was a member of its research advisory board. Dr. Marsden was a professor of neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London and until recently, dean of the Institute of Neurology in London. A prolific writer, he took credit for publishing more than 1,000 papers, including 800 original papers and classic texts that underpin present concepts of movement disorders. He achieved global recognition with research on the functions and pharmacology of basal ganglia and motor physiology. His work led to his 1972 appointment as the first Professor of Neurology at King's College Hospital Medical School in London. At 34, he was the youngest neurologist to hold a chair in that specialty. He filled the post until 1987, when he was named professor and head of the University of London's Department of Clinical Neurology at Queen Square. He was elected Dean of the Institute of Neurology at the University of London in 1995. He and a frequent collaborator, Dr. Stanley Fahn of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, were acknowledged leaders of research into the movement disorders. They founded the Movement Disorder Society, of which Dr. Marsden was the first president, and edited its journal together. Born in 1938, he studied at Cheltenham College, after which he earned his medical and science degrees at St. Thomas Hospital Medical School at the University of London. Dr. Marsden, who was married twice, is survived by his companion, Dr. Claudia Kawas, a professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Other survivors include a son, six daughters, a brother and two grandsons.