Morris Ziff, 91; Expert on Arthritic and Rheumatoid Ailments

Morris Ziff, 91, an internationally known authority on arthritic and rheumatic disorders, died Aug. 22 in Dallas of cardiac arrest.

Ziff was the former director of the Harold C. Simmons Arthritic Research Center at the University of Texas. He was an early expert in the causes of rheumatoid arthritis and similar diseases.

In the 1950s, he contributed to the identification of the rheumatoid factor, a blood marker used to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Ziff earned his bachelor’s degree, a doctorate in chemistry and a medical degree from New York University. He taught at NYU and was an attending physician at Bellevue Hospital in New York through much of the 1950s.

He joined the faculty of what is now the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 1958. He retired in 1984 but continued to work in his private laboratory until 1998, and was in clinical practice until 1999.