In Memoriam

Peter Kellaway, Ph.D., died on June 25, 2003 in Houston, Texas, at the age of 82years, from complications associated with lymphoma. Dr. Kellaway was a renowned clinical neurophysiologist and a leader in the establishment of the American Society of Electroneurodiagnostic Technologists (ASET). A professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, he was a practicing clinical neurophysiologist for almost 60 years and witnessed, as well as directed, dramatic changes in the field over a half-century as it emerged as an important medical specialty. He made pioneering contributions to the understanding of the electroencephalogram in children, as well as to the application of electro-encephalography in the management of childhood epilepsy.

Peter Kellaway was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1920, the son of actors Cecil and Doreen Kellaway. As a child, he traveled extensively with his family as they toured South Africa, Australia, India, and the South Pacific. They eventually settled in Melbourne, Australia, where he attended elementary and high schools. Later, they moved to Los Angeles where his father pursued a very successful career in Hollywood movies, winning a Golden Globe Award and two Academy Award nominations. In California, Dr. Kellaway attended Occidental College in Pasadena, where he earned both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. In 1943, he moved to McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where he trained with Dr. Herbert Jasper, and received his Ph.D. in neurophysiology. In 1948, after a year on the faculty at McGill University and the Montreal Neurological Institute, Dr. Kellaway accepted a faculty appointment at Baylor University College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, a position he held for 55 years.

Soon after arriving in Houston, he established the first EEG laboratory in that region of the United States; it consisted of one examination room and one 6-channel,vacuum-tube-based, electroencephalograph. By the time he stepped down as Chief of the Neurophysiology Services at the Baylor-affiliated hospitals in 1998, he was directing laboratories that performed thousands of procedures per year recorded by computerized/digital instruments that included EEG, evoked potentials, EEG-video monitoring, ambulatory EEG, polysomnography, electrocorticography, and electro-myography.

Dr. Kellaway founded the Section of Neurophysiology in the Department of Physiology (later transferred to the Department of Neurology) at Baylor College of Medicine, and served as its Head until1998. He also served as Chief of the Baylor-affiliated 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 was instrumental in establishing 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 the National Institutes of Health-funded Epilepsy Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital. In addition, he was instrumental in developing at these institutions the Blue Bird Circle Developmental Neurogenetics Laboratory, the Clinical Research Center for Neonatal Seizures, and the Neurosensory Center.

Dr. Kellaway’s research contributions include pioneering studies of neonatal seizures, infantile spasms, benign focal epilepsy of childhood, childhood absence, and medically refractory epilepsy. He was an innovative clinical investigator who critically examined the normal and abnormal patterns of EEG activity during wakefulness and sleep in neonates, infants, children, and adults. Specific areas of investigation included quantification of electrical and behavioral seizure phenomena, identification of genetic contributions to EEG activity and seizure disorders in children, descriptions of intrinsic biorhythms that influence seizure occurrence, and studies of the relationship between sleep and patterns of epileptic activity. He worked to make EEG a routine part of the management of hospitalized infants and children with epilepsy and other neurological disorders by bringing new technology and improved recording methods to the neonatal nursery, pediatric intensive care unit, and ward. His scientific publications spanned 6 decades, with the first appearing in 1943, and the last, the Atlas of Neonatal Electroencephalography (third edition)-a book completed with colleagues two months before his death-was published this year.

Dr. Kellaway believed in the dynamic use of electroencephalography as a tool for understanding brain function, and was among the first to advocate and institute the use of EEG in intensive care and operating room settings, as well as for long-term monitoring of epileptic disorders-practices that are now routine. His research interests and expertise also led to applications in unusual environments. He and his colleagues conducted research on the EEG activity of astronauts during several of the early US space flights, and on “aquanauts” during prolonged undersea exposure during 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.

Dr. Kellaway received many honors for his work. He served as President of the American Epilepsy Society (AES) in 1960 and of the American EEG Society (now the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society) in 1964. He was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology [now Clinical Neurophysiology] from 1968 to 1971. In 1977 he was awarded an honorary M.D. by the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. 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 American Epilepsy Society-Milken Family Medical Foundation Distinguished Clinical Investigator Award. He was named an honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1985, and an honorary Fellow of the American Electroencephalographic Society in 1986. He was Honorary President of the 13th International Congress of EEG and Clinical Neurophysiology in 1993, and the Hans Berger Lecturer (1982) and recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award (1993), both at the Medical College of Virginia. He was ASET’s Grass Lecturer in 1989 and was granted Honorary Membership in ASET. Baylor College of Medicine has recognized Dr. Kellaway’s extraordinary contributions by establishing the Peter Kellaway Endowment for Research and the Peter Kellaway Lectureship in Epilepsy. The Methodist Hospital has created the Peter Kellaway Library in Neuroscience. When he stepped down as Head of the Section of Neurophysiology in 1998, it was renamed in his honor.

Throughout his career Dr. Kellaway was involved in all aspects of the development of clinical neurophysiology as a medical specialty and as a field of study from which one could further investigate the developing brain. He taught medical students, residents, and post-doctoral trainees at Baylor from its earliest days as a medical school in Houston. He was active in the development of continuing medical education programs for both physicians and technologists through the American Electroencephalographic Society (AEEGS) (now the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society), the American Epilepsy Society, and the American Society of Electroneurodiagnostic Technologists.

Dr. Kellaway was a strong advocate of the electroneurodiagnostic technologist. He cared for and mentored the individual technologists with whom he worked and helped set the stage for all electroneurodiagnostic technologists to be recognized and respected as healthcare professionals. Because he firmly believed in the value of the electroneurodiagnostic technologist in the practice of electroencephalography, and recognized that the technologist was the critical interface between patient and interpreting physician, he became an early proponent of a professional society and standardized training and certification for technologists. In 1959, Dr. Kellaway, as Chairman of the American Electroencephalographic Society’s Technician’s Committee, and with the help of other committee members and Nina Kagawa, R.EEG T. (then Chief Technologist of the laboratories Dr. Kellaway directed),solicited ideas concerning the need for a national society for technologists. He and Ms. Kagawa developed a prototype constitution and organized a meeting of interested technologists at the Annual Meeting of AEEGS in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1959. As a result of that meeting, Dr. Kellaway’s committee recommended to AEEGS that it support the establishment of a national technologist’s society, recommended establishment of a mechanism for certification and registration of EEG technologists, and proposed that AEEGS cooperate with the new technologist society in the examination of applicants for certification. These recommendations were ratified by AEEGS Council in 1959 and the name American Society of Electroencephalographic Technicians was proposed. The first annual ASET meeting was held the following year.

Dr. Kellaway was a generous and giving teacher, devoted to the development and training of technologists in his own laboratories as well as on a national level. From the time he established his first laboratory at Baylor in 1948, until the time he stepped down as Chief in 1998, Dr. Kellaway personally interviewed many of the applicants for technologist positions. He had an enduring respect for those who wanted to learn and to work hard, and was eager to participate in their training. He considered technologists to be a crucial part of his extended neurophysiology family .Following his death, a group of technologists met and reminisced about their experiences with Dr. Kellaway. One retired technologist concisely expressed the feelings of most, stating simply “Dr. Kellaway gave me my chance!”

– Eli M. Mizrahi, M.D., and James D. Frost, Jr., M.D.
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas

Originally published in:

The Neurodiagnostic Journal, 43: 203–206.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1086508X.2003.11079442