Pioneering sex researcher dies
Dr William H Masters, one of the first and leading researchers in the field of human sexuality, has died from complications associated with Parkinson's Disease.
Masters, 85, died on Friday at a hospital in Tucson, Arizona.
He developed an interest in human sexuality while a medical student in New York in the 1940s.
Dr Masters established himself as a researcher in obstetrics and gynaecology and moved on to study human sexuality at Washington University in St Louis, where he co-founded the Masters and Johnson Institute.
Partnered with Virginia Johnson, his future wife, Dr Masters conducted interviews and observed sex in the act, researching biological responses and monitoring the physiology of sexual arousal.
Based on that research, the pair published Human Sexual Response in 1966. It became a bestseller despite its technical language.
Virginia Johnson Masters told the St Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper: "He was pioneering in a neglected area and was willing to risk, even enjoyed risking, his professional existence by breaking through in a field that was avoided and a source of a lot of discomfort".
He leaves his third wife Geraldine B Masters, a daughter and a son and is survived by a brother. A family service is planned in Tucson.
