Announcing the Passing of Arthur K. Asbury, MD
October 21, 2022
We write with sadness to let you know of the passing of Dr. Arthur K. Asbury, Van Meter Professor of Neurology Emeritus, who died at Penn Medicine Hospice on October 19, 2022 at the age of 93. Dr. Asbury will be remembered for his pioneering clinical and experimental studies of peripheral neuropathies, as well as for his unparalleled dedication and steadfast leadership at Penn Medicine across his distinguished career. We extend our condolences to his family as well as the entire community, with whom this news will surely reverberate deeply.
Arthur Knight Asbury was born in 1928 in Cincinnati Ohio, into a family of physicians. His father was a surgeon, his mother an ophthalmologic pathologist, and his older brother an ophthalmic surgeon. All three were on the faculty at the University of Cincinnati where Dr. Asbury would eventually attend medical school and graduate first in his class in 1958.
Dr. Asbury’s clinical prowess, astute leadership and devoted mentorship are evidenced across the more than 60-year span of his career. After his postgraduate training in medicine, neurology, pathology and neuropathology was fulfilled at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Asbury became Chief of the Neurology Service at the San Francisco Veterans Administration Medical Center in 1969. Concurrently, he was appointed as Associate Professor and then Professor of Neurology and Pathology and Vice Chair of the Department of Neurology at the Medical School of the University of California, San Francisco.
In addition to publishing more than 240 scientific articles on peripheral nerve diseases, Dr. Asbury was editor in chief of the Annals of Neurology for eight years. He was a co-editor of the two-volume Diseases of the Nervous System, co-editor of the Blue Books of Practical Neurology and served on editorial boards of 11 scientific journals. He garnered international recognition for his expertise on Guillain-Barré syndrome, diabetic neuropathy and other peripheral nerve diseases including those occurring in patients with chronic kidney disease. He also served as the President of the American Neurological Association in 1983, following which he remained a thought leader in neurology, both nationally and internationally.
In 1973, Dr. Asbury was selected as Chair of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Asbury assumed the role of Chair in 1974 and stepped down for health reasons in 1982. The following year, he was appointed the first Van Meter Professor of Neurology. During his tenure as the as Chair of Neurology, he created a pre-eminent faculty known for their innovation and translation. Over the next fifteen years Dr. Asbury served in prominent leadership roles at the school and medical center. He was Interim Dean and Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in 1988-89. Subsequently he fulfilled a three-year term as Vice Dean for Research and a four-year term as Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs. Dr. Asbury again became Interim Dean of the School of Medicine in 2000-2001. His staunch advocacy for maintaining the integrated nature of the medical school and hospital underscored his vision and commitment to the interrelationship between first-rate education, research, and patient care.
Mentoring was his most prized role, and in 2004 the Medical School established the annual Outstanding Faculty Mentoring award in Dr. Asbury’s name. He received the Penn Medical System’s Master Clinician award, the University’s Lindback Award for teaching excellence and in 2015 the University conferred him with the honorary Doctor of Sciences. It was in this spirit that the Department of Neurology launched the Asbury Accelerator Fund in Dr. Asbury’s honor, as a means of tangibly supporting junior faculty with the support they need at a critical time in their careers.
Dr. Asbury’s ardent support for Penn Medicine never wavered and he continued to demonstrate his commitment when in 2019 he and his wife of 42 years, Dr. Carolyn Asbury, established the Arthur Knight Asbury MD Professorship at the Perelman School of Medicine to be held by the Neurology Department Chair, honoring Frances E. Jensen, MD, as the inaugural chair holder in 2021.
Dr. Asbury’s accolades are too many to list and yet are also insufficient in capturing the outsized role and the essence of constancy that he gave so freely to this institution. His impact can be measured in the strength and number of personal connections that he forged with so many of us in clinical practice, research, teaching and mentorship. We can credit Dr. Asbury and his active legacy for shaping the institution as we know it today. He will be greatly missed.
In addition to his wife, Dr. Asbury is survived by a sister, Elizabeth Asbury Stone (Cincinnati), and three children from his prior marriage to Patricia A. Asbury: daughters Dana Asbury MFA (Richard Levy), Lyndia (Patricia Knight) Asbury and son William F. Asbury, VMD, grandchildren Alexandra Asbury Levy (David Collin) and Katherine (Kate) Esther Levy (Evan Tingle), three great grandchildren Elliott Collin, and Hazel and Cecelia Tingle, and nine nieces and nephews.
In remembrance of Dr. Asbury’s life, the family asks that any charitable donations be made in support of the GBS-CIDP Foundation International or Penn Medicine Hospice Services.
Sincerely,
J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, EVP/Dean
Frances Elizabeth Jensen, MD, FACP, Chair, Department of NeurologyAnnouncing the Passing of Arthur K. Asbury, MD