Dr. Shirley Ferguson Rayport

1923 - 2025

Dr. Shirley Ferguson Rayport

March 9, 1923 - September 17, 2025

Dr. Shirley Ferguson Rayport, a pioneering neuropsychiatrist, dedicated educator, and compassionate physician who helped transform mental health care in northwest Ohio, died peacefully in her sleep in Canton, Massachusetts, on September 17, 2025. She was 102.

Shirley was a leader in the development of the field of neuropsychiatry and was known for her humane, whole-person approach to psychiatric care. From 1971 to 1982, she served as director of the Medical College Unit at the Toledo Mental Health Center, where she championed an interdisciplinary model that combined pharmacology, psychotherapy, and creative therapies such as gardening, dance, and theater. Her belief that recovery required community, empathy, and opportunity shaped her teaching and her clinical practice. Under her leadership, the Toledo Mental Health Center became a national model of compassionate, patient-centered care during a period of major transition in mental health policy.

Shirley was a gifted teacher and mentor. As a member of the faculty at the Medical College of Ohio (now the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences), she trained generations of medical students and residents. She developed innovative methods for integrating neurological and psychiatric assessment and introduced her students to the ethical and legal dimensions of mental health through joint conferences and hospital casework conducted with UT law faculty.

Born in Syracuse, New York, on March 9, 1923, to Solomon and Ida Shapero Ferguson, Shirley Martha Ferguson was the youngest of three daughters. A talented violinist in her youth, she performed with her sister, Dena, as part of The Ferguson Trio before pursuing a career in medicine. She earned her medical degree from Syracuse University College of Medicine (now SUNY Upstate Medical University) and began her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. She later redirected her focus to psychiatry - a bold move for a young woman physician in the 1940s - and completed her training at the U.S. Veterans Administration Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, and at McGill University, in Montreal.

It was in New York City that she met neurosurgeon Dr. Mark Rayport, then a resident at Bellevue Hospital. They married six months later, in 1951, beginning a lifelong personal and professional partnership that produced groundbreaking research in epilepsy and neuropsychiatry. To avoid confusion in their collaboration, Shirley used her maiden name professionally and was known as Dr. Shirley M. Ferguson. Together, the Rayports pioneered an innovative, multidisciplinary approach to epilepsy treatment that combined neurology, psychiatry, and neurosurgery - decades before such collaboration became common practice. Their work at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and later in Toledo, earned international recognition.

Following her husband Mark's death in 2003, Shirley established the Mark Rayport and Shirley Ferguson Rayport Fellowship in Epilepsy Surgery at McGill's Montreal Neurological Institute to support the training of young neurosurgeons in epilepsy research and care.

After her retirement, she remained active as a writer and scholar, contributing to books and journals on the relationship between mind and brain and on the history of medicine.

She will be remembered by colleagues and former students as a brilliant physician, an inspiring teacher, and a woman of integrity and compassion who combined scientific rigor with deep humanity.

Shirley is survived by her children, Stephen (Marcia Kalin) of New York, Jeffrey (Hillary Hedges) of Boston, and Jennifer (Andrei Rabodzeenko) of Chicago; and grandchildren, Ilana, Yael, Blake, Abe, and Milo; and a great-grandchild, Ella.

She is buried beside her husband, Mark Rayport, at the Toledo Hebrew Cemetery in Rossford, not far from their former home in Perrysburg where they raised their family and lived for nearly 50 years.

Those wishing to honor Shirley's memory may consider a gift to the Mark Rayport and Shirley Ferguson Rayport Fellowship in Epilepsy Surgery at the Montreal Neurological Institute (Friends of McGill University, https://giving.mcgill.ca/ways-give/more-ways-give/international-giving/give-united-states), to the Annual Rayport Brain-Behavior Lecture at the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences, or to the Orchard Cove Enrichment Fund, benefiting her retirement community (1 Del Pond Drive, Canton, MA 02021).

Photo Credit: Beverly Hall