Byron Polk Stookey, MD, 79, who did early work on treating tic douloureux and rupture of intervertebral discs, died of coronary heart disease Oct 20 near his New York City home.
He was born in 1887 in Belleville, Ill, where his father, Lyman Polk Stookey, MD, practiced.
Before earning his bachelor's degree at the University of Southern California in 1908, he studied in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1909, he earned his master's degree from Harvard University, and in 1913 he received his MD from Harvard Medical School, after which he studied in Vienna and Berlin.
In World War I, he served as a captain, British Royal Army Medical Corps. Later, he joined the US Army Medical Corps as a major.
After the war, Dr. Stookey went to Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, from which he retired in 1952 as professor of neurosurgery.
In 1959, Columbia awarded him an honorary