Los Alamitos Center Named for Doctor : Noted Brain Specialist John French Dies at 77

John Douglas French, a founder of the UCLA Brain Research Institute, died Wednesday at the Los Alamitos Alzheimer’s disease care facility that bears his name. He was 77.

His personal battle with Alzheimer’s disease took on public overtones when his wife, diva Dorothy Kirsten, began a lengthy campaign to house those with the affliction.

Opened in November, 1987, the John Douglas French Center for Alzheimer’s Disease was the nation’s first facility designed and built to care for those affected by the degenerative brain disease.

French’s wife, who once was the definitive “Madame Butterfly” at the Metropolitan Opera Co., has said that when her husband was diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s in 1982, there was no suitable facility for his care. She embarked on a campaign to build one.

She created the French Foundation for Alzheimer Research to advance scientific and medical research and to provide methods for caring for America’s 3 million Alzheimer’s patients. The center was built through the foundation.

French’s fate was ironic, since he was a physician who devoted most of his career to the mysteries of brain disease.

A native of Los Angeles, he earned his medical degree at USC and received additional training in neurosurgery in the East.

In the late 1940s, French directed the residence program in neurosurgery at Long Beach Veteran’s Hospital. There, he met Prof. H.W. Magoun, with whom he later co-founded the UCLA Brain Research Institute. He served as its director for 20 years.

French’s research focused primarily on brain mechanisms related to epilepsy, comas, anesthesia, sleep and wakefulness.

He and Kirsten married in 1955 and they often traveled together; he to attend medical meetings, she to sing in performances.

“It was terrible to watch this beautiful man deteriorate before my eyes,” she said at the 148-bed center on the eve of its opening. “But I’m very pleased that he will finish his days here.”

A memorial service will be held at the Bel Air Presbyterian Church at 2:30 p.m. Monday. His wife has asked that in lieu of sending flowers, memorial contributions be made to the French Foundation for Alzheimer Research, 11620 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 260, Los Angeles, Calif. 90025.