Robert W.P. Cutler
1933-April 12, 2004
Stanford, California

Dr. Robert W.P. Cutler, emeritus professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine and author of "The Mysterious Death of Jane Stanford," died April 12, 2004, at the age of 70.

Born in New York in 1933, he graduated from Harvard in 1953 and received a medical degree from Tufts University in 1957. In 1974, after serving on the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine's faculty, he joined Stanford University. He spent 13 years in the dean's office, first as associate dean of medical education and, from 1988 to 1995, as senior associate dean of faculty affairs. According to emeritus professor David Korn, he blended "his customary intellectual rigor and unwavering integrity with compassion and a deep respect for personal privacy" in his work as a dean.

Korn describes him as a scholar "not only in neurology but in the execution of his decanal responsibilities and thereafter in his marvelous authorial accomplishments in retirement."

His book, "The Mysterious Death of Jane Stanford," was published in 2003 by the Stanford University Press. It examines the unusual circumstances surrounding university co-founder Jane Stanford's death. His conclusion -- that Stanford died of strychnine poisoning -- challenges a historical assumption that attributes her death to heart failure.

An expert in Parkinson's disease, he is known for pioneering research about the formation and absorption of cerebrospinal fluid and for work on blood-brain-barrier transport systems. He was a member of the American Academy of Neurology, the American Neurological Association and the American Society for Neurochemistry.

At Stanford, he won the Kaiser Family Foundation Award for Outstanding and Innovative Contributions to Medical Education.

Upon retiring, he lived on his ranch on a hill overlooking Livermore, Calif. He is survived by his wife, Maggie; their son, Aaron; and three grandsons.

Tags: teacher/educator