In Memoriam: Edward J. Quilligan, MD

Edward (Ted) J. Quilligan, professor emeritus in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, and former vice chancellor of health sciences and dean at UC Irvine School of Medicine, died December 4, 2025, at the age of 100.

With a career at UC Irvine that spanned over three decades, Quilligan was a pioneer in fetal heart rate monitoring, one of the founding fathers of the subspecialty of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. 

Dr. Quilligan “Ted” was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in the Midwest. Having been deeply moved by his mother’s dedication to her patients as a nurse, his parents recalled that Ted had always wanted to become a physician. Additionally, Ted’s father, James, was president of Ross Laboratories in Columbus, where the popular baby formula Similac was produced.

Following an early graduation at Western Military Academy in Illinois, Quilligan enlisted in the army and achieved the rank of second lieutenant of the infantry during World War II. 

After the War, Quilligan earned his medical degree at Ohio State University, where he also completed his residency training in Obstetrics & Gynecology. 

As a resident, Quilligan began studying cardiac output in pregnancy and was offered a faculty position at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in Ohio. A key teaching hospital of Case Western, Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital, appointed Quilligan as chair of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology in 1962 at the age of 37.

While at Case Western, he began a collaboration with Edward H. Hon, MD, from Yale University. Together, they pioneered the electronic fetal heart monitoring system, which remains an essential clinical tool for prenatal and antepartum monitoring to this day.

Following one year serving as chair at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, he was recruited to Yale University as department chair in 1966. Quilligan would publish pivotal papers correlating fetal heart rate patterns and umbilical artery blood gas values, as well as identifying fetal head compressions as the etiology of early decelerations.

During the 1970s and 80s, Quilligan would serve as chair of the Ob/Gyn Departments at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the University of California, Davis. 

During this period, he founded the subspecialty of Maternal-Fetal Medicine when he chaired a special session by the American Board of Obstetrics & Gynecology designed to assess the need for subspecialty certification in perinatology, gynecologic oncology and reproductive endocrinology/ infertility.

Between his time at USC and Madison, Quilligan took a sabbatical to study at the University of Oxford in England. Upon his return to the United States in 1987, he was appointed vice chancellor and dean of UC Irvine School of Medicine and served in this role from 1987-1989.

Despite his administrative duties, Quilligan remained active in the department’s teaching mission, and was instrumental in developing a nationally recognized Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship that can count among its alumni many UC Irvine faculty, including:

• Carol A. Major, MD
• Tamera J. Hatfield, MD
• Jennifer A. Jolley, MD
• Jonathan G. Steller, MD

Quilligan also served as editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology from 1990 to 2008. During his tenure, he introduced the peer review process to evaluate the scientific merit of submissions critically. He also served as the director of Continuing Medical Education at UC Irvine’s sister training site, MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center, from 2002 to 2012.

In 2000, the Edward J. Quilligan Administrative Chair in Maternal-Fetal Medicine was established and is currently held by Robert E. Bristow, MD, Edward J. Quilligan Chair and Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of California, Irvine.

Quilligan was married to his late wife, Betty, for 60 years, and they had six children. His vision and dedication to the field of maternal-fetal medicine were legendary, and he will be deeply missed.