Dr. Cary Grayson Suter dies at 89

When Dr. Cary Grayson Suter taught his neurology students at Medical College of Virginia about hysterical seizures, they wouldn't believe that people could fake seizures.

Then, in his favorite canary yellow suit, he would collapse on the floor and change their minds. "He would fake a seizure," said his daughter, Anna Deane Begiebing of Whitehall.

Dr. Suter, who spent his career studying the details of the nervous system and its diseases, came to MCV in 1959 to head the school's neurology program.

The 89-year-old Ivy resident, who served as chairman of the MCV neurology department from 1963 until 1985 and continued to practice medicine until about 2000, died of cardiac arrest Monday in a Charlottesville hospital.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, Sept. 26, at 11 a.m. at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Ivy, where he was a member. Burial will be in the church cemetery.

In 1972, he established at MCV the ongoing annual two-day Hans Berger Symposium for neurophysiology, which attracts faculty from around the world.

"He developed a superb program which trained the majority of neurologists here in Richmond," wrote Dr. Nelson Richards, a colleague, in an e-mail. "He was the example of a first-rate bedside clinical neurologist."

A native of Bridgewater and one of five children, he was named for Cary T. Grayson, physician to President Woodrow Wilson. "He said, 'I was destined to become a doctor. I was named after one,'" his daughter said.

He grew up in rural Fort Defiance, near Staunton, "where they butchered their animals, churned butter and put their pies in a safe," his daughter said.

Dr. Suter earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Hampden-Sydney College and his medical degree in 1947 at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

He married MCV pharmacy student Anna Deane Carr "A.D." Suter on Kentucky Derby Day 1947. Derby Day was always a family holiday, with Dr. Suter's unique mint juleps and Beefeater gin and tonics. Mrs. Suter, who presided over the entertaining he did as a department chairman, died in 2006.

Dr. Suter spent a year in general pathology at University of Virginia Hospital before interning at the University of Alabama Hospital in Birmingham and at the Cleveland Clinic, where he studied internal medicine.

He returned to U.Va. for a three-year residency in neurology and psychiatry and then spent two years at the Mayo Clinic in a traineeship in clinical neurology and in electroencephalography -- a method of recording electromotive variations in brain waves -- and electromyography, a technique for evaluating and recording signals of the nerves. He brought EEG and EMG methods to MCV, his daughter said.

Along the way, he was the primary helper with his children's homework, avidly read and collected first-editions works by Thoreau, enjoyed reading poetry and gardening and was always looking for a fine dining experience.

In addition to his daughter, survivors include a son, Dr. Cary Carr Suter of Corrales, N.M.; a grandson; and a foreign-exchange "daughter," Vere Braithwaite of Bridgetown, Barbados.