Wallace William Tourtellotte, MD, PhD (1924–2019)

Wallace William Tourtellotte was born in Great Falls, Montana, on September 13, 1924, to winter wheat farmers Nathanial Mills and Victoria Frances (Charlton) Tourtellotte. Wallace became interested in science in high school as an Eagle Scout. He went to The University of Chicago on a full scholarship and graduated in 1945. He attended medical school at the University of Chicago with a full scholarship in one of the first MD/PhD programs in the nation. After graduating in 1951, he did his internship at The University of Rochester, followed by deployment as lieutenant at the Bethesda Naval hospital from 1952 to 1954. During those years, he met his wife to be, Dr. Jean Esther Toncray, graduate of the University of Michigan School of Medicine. They were married on Valentine's day, February 14, 1953, and had 4 sons, Wallace William, Jr., Georges Mills, James Millard, and Warren Gerard. The family moved to Ann Arbor, MI, where Wallace received residency training in neurology (1954–1957) and joined the Department of Neurology as Assistant Professor (1957–1959), Associate Professor (1959–1966), and Professor (1966–1971). He was Visiting Professor in Pharmacology at Washington University, 1963–1964. In 1971, he moved to Los Angeles, CA, where he became Professor and Vice Chair of Neurology at UCLA and Chief of Neurology at the VA in West Los Angeles. At the VA, he became founding director of the Neurology Residency Training Program and created the first of its kind fellowship program in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). In 1998, he became emeritus vice chair of Neurology and emeritus Chief of Neurology at the VA. He remained on the medical staff as neurologist and neuroscientist until 2011.