George Kenneth York III

David A. Steinberg

George Kenneth York III]

George K. York III, neurologist, historian of neurology, and health care executive, died in Fiddletown, California, June 14, 2021, at the age of 70 after a protracted series of medical adversities.

York was a skilled clinician, world-renowned historian, creative writer, and expert in finance and audit. He was a concerned and empathetic physician who saw his clinical role primarily as a patient advocate.

His accomplishments in his parallel life as an academic historian of neurology included chairmanships of the history sections of the American Academy of Neurology and World Federation of Neurology, twice winner of the AAN’s Lawrence McHenry Award, many invited international lectures, dozens of peer-reviewed publications, and memberships in the Royal Society of Medicine and Savile Club.

York’s area of academic focus was the life and work of the founder of scientific neurology, John Hughlings Jackson, for which he was the acknowledged world’s expert. His myriad academic accomplishments aside, York may have been most proud of his creative writing. His humorous commentary on health care issues and policies, called The Termite, was distributed every week for nearly 15 years to the Kaiser Medical Group.

He also was awarded the AAN’s creative writing prize. Additionally, York was blessed with a keen business acumen being a member of the AAN finance committee and chair of Kaiser’s finance and audit committee for many years.

York was born in Palo Alto on Sept. 7, 1950, while his father was a graduate student at Stanford University and grew up in Davis, California. He attended college for a year at the University of San Francisco and graduated from University of California, Riverside with a BS in chemistry.

While applying to medical schools, York did research in pulmonary physiology at the UC Davis Medical School and matriculated with the UC Davis Class of 1978. He did his internship in internal medicine at UCLA and completed his neurology residency at UC Davis.

After a research fellowship at UCSF, York opened a private practice in Placerville and Jackson in California’s Gold Country. After two years, he was recruited to head the neurology department at Kaiser Stockton, and for nearly the rest of his clinical career, he was chair of the department and elected representative for Stockton on the Kaiser Board of Directors.

His intelligence, knowledge, incisive humor, and devotion to his friends and family will be sorely missed by all who knew him.

York is survived by his wife Pamela and his siblings, Judi Williams, Peter York, Jennifer Linzey, and Melissa Chase. •

This In Memoriam is reprinted with permission from the Journal of Neurological Sciences, June 2021. David A. Steinberg, Fiddletown Institute.