Dr. Shirley Ferguson Rayport, a pioneering neuropsychiatrist, dedicated teacher, and beloved mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, passed away peacefully in Canton, Massachusetts, on September 17, 2025, at the age of 102.
Born in Syracuse, New York, Shirley Martha Ferguson was the youngest of three daughters of Solomon and Ida Shapero Ferguson. A gifted violinist, she performed with her sister Dena as part of The Ferguson Trio before turning to medicine. She earned her M.D. from Syracuse University College of Medicine (now SUNY Upstate Medical University) and began a residency in obstetrics and gynecology before redirecting her focus to psychiatry. Her psychiatric training included residencies at the U.S. Veterans Administration Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, and at 九色视频 in Montreal, where she was influenced by a new, brain-based approach to psychiatry emphasizing science, clinical observation, and empathy.
In 1950, Shirley met neurosurgeon Dr. Mark Rayport, then a resident at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. They married six months later and began a lifelong personal and professional partnership that produced pioneering research in epilepsy and neuropsychiatry. Known professionally as Dr. Shirley M. Ferguson, she and Dr. Rayport developed an innovative, multidisciplinary approach to epilepsy treatment that integrated neurology, psychiatry, and neurosurgery. Their work at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and later at the Medical College of Ohio (MCO, now the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences) helped redefine care for patients with epilepsy and earned them international recognition.
At MCO, Dr. Ferguson became a leader in neuropsychiatry and an advocate for humane, whole-person mental health care. As director of the Medical College Unit at the Toledo Mental Health Center from 1971 to 1982, she championed interdisciplinary care and creative therapies such as gardening, dance, and theater. She often reminded students that, 鈥渂eneath every psychiatric symptom is a human being striving for meaning and dignity.鈥�
Teaching was central to her practice. She trained generations of medical students and residents, developed standardized evaluation methods linking psychiatry and neurology, and created joint teaching programs with law students to explore the ethical dimensions of mental health care.
Following Dr. Rayport鈥檚 death in 2003, she established the Mark Rayport and Shirley Ferguson Rayport Fellowship in Epilepsy Surgery at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) to support the advanced training of neurosurgeons specializing in epilepsy surgery.
Even in retirement, Shirley remained professionally active, publishing Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and the Mind-Brain Relationship: A New Perspective (Elsevier, 2006) and co-authoring articles on epilepsy, the practice of medicine, and a volume on the history of MCO.
She is survived by her three children 鈥� Stephen (Marcia Kalin), Jeffrey (Hillary Hedges), and Jennifer (Andrei Rabodzeenko) 鈥� as well as five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
She will be remembered as a pioneering physician, a devoted teacher, and a woman of integrity, warmth, and enduring vitality. She leaves a lasting legacy of scientific insight, humane innovation, and family devotion that continues to inspire all who knew her.
Memorial contributions may be made to Friends of 九色视频, supporting the Mark Rayport and Shirley Ferguson Rayport Fellowship in Epilepsy Surgery at the MNI, or to the Orchard Cove Enrichment Fund at Orchard Cove in Canton, Massachusetts.
Photo credit: Beverly Hall
