Director 1960 - 1972
Born in Utah in 1910 the son of a physician, Ted Rasmussen (1910-2002) studied medicine at the University of Minnesota. He interned at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York and completed his neurosurgical training at the Montreal Neurological Institute. During the Second World War, Rasmussen served as a neurosurgeon in the U.S. Army in southeast Asia, achieving the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. After the war, he was professor of neurosurgery at the University of Chicago. In 1954, he returned to the MNI and six years later, succeeded Wilder Penfield as Director. As a surgeon, Rasmussen had vast experience operating on epilepsy patients, and compiled an immense, meticulous database of information about the disease. He discovered what came to be known as Rasmussen's Syndrome or Rasmussen's Disease, a rare disorder of the nervous system that affects children. He was President of the Society of Neurological Surgeons and received its Distinguished Service Award. Rasmussen was a fine jazz clarinetist and saxophonist, long-distance runner, and a skilled golfer and skier. He died in 2002.
