IN MEMORIAM
A distinguished member of the headache medicine community , Dr . Ninan Mathew passed away at his home in Houston on July 27 . Dr . Mathew was born into a Mar Thoma Syrian Christian family in Kerala , South India . He received his medical degree at Trivandrum Medical College , Kerala , and did post-graduate training in neurology at Christian Medical College , Vellore , India . He moved to the US during the summer of 1970 to complete a fellowship in cerebrovascular disease at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston .
At Baylor , Dr . Mathew was involved in research into measuring cerebral blood flow in migraine patients and thus remained in headache medicine for the remainder of his career . In 1976 , he founded the Houston Headache Clinic which was the first headache specialty center in Texas . Later , in 1984 , he founded the Dallas Headache Clinic . A few days prior to his death , he was still seeing patients at the Houston Headache Institute .
An acknowledged leader in headache medicine , Dr . Mathew served as President of the American Headache Society ( AHS ), the International Headache Society , and was chairman and one of the founders of the Headache Section of the American Academy of Neurology . In 1976 , he was the recipient of the Harold G . Wolff Award and in 1994 , the John R . Graham Distinguished Clinician Award of the AHS . Dr . Mathew received three Lifetime Achievement Awards – Texas Neurological Society ( 2012 ); Headache Cooperative of New England ( 2013 ); and , the American Headache Society ( 2014 ).
His contributions to the medical literature were many and significant . He was the editor of the 1984 text , Cluster Headache , and with Randolph Evans , MD , wrote two editions of Handbook of Headache .
In addition to his professional activities , Dr . Mathew served as president of the India Cultural Center in Houston , and with his wife , was a founding patron of the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts and the Asian Galleries of the Museum of Fine Arts , in Houston .
The National Headache Foundation wishes to express our condolences to his wife , Sushila ; his three children – Rita Morico , Sanjay Mathew , MD , and Vijay Mathew ; and , his six grandchildren . He will be missed by the headache community and his patients . HW
30 HeadWise ® | Volume 5 , Issue 1 • 2015