William Masters

December 27, 1915 — February 16, 2001 — Cleveland, Ohio, United States

William Howell Masters was an American gynecologist who transformed the scientific understanding of human sexuality. As the senior partner of the Masters and Johnson research team, he conducted groundbreaking studies on sexual response and dysfunction that reshaped medicine, psychology, and public discourse. His decades of work with Virginia E. Johnson made the clinical study of sex a legitimate scientific field.

Early Life and Education

William Howell Masters was born on December 27, 1915, in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended Hamilton College in New York, where he developed an early interest in reproductive biology, reportedly working as a research assistant to pioneering endocrinologist George Washington Corner during his college years. This experience sparked a lifelong fascination with human reproduction and sexuality. Masters went on to earn his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine in 1943. He then pursued specialized training in obstetrics and gynecology, eventually joining the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. There, he built a respected career as a gynecologist and fertility specialist, but he grew increasingly convinced that the medical field lacked rigorous scientific data on human sexual physiology. In the mid-1950s, he began laying the groundwork for what would become one of the most controversial and consequential research programs in the history of American medicine, setting the stage for his historic partnership with Virginia Johnson.

Career and Major Achievements

In 1957, Masters hired Virginia E. Johnson as a research assistant, beginning a professional partnership that would last decades. Together they founded the Reproductive Biology Research Foundation (later the Masters and Johnson Institute) in St. Louis, where they conducted direct laboratory observation and measurement of human subjects during sexual activity—an unprecedented and controversial methodology at the time. Their research produced a detailed map of the human sexual response cycle, identifying four distinct phases: excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution. Their landmark 1966 book, "Human Sexual Response," presented this data to the scientific community and became an international sensation, despite—and partly because of—its explicit content. In 1970, they published "Human Sexual Inadequacy," which introduced innovative therapeutic techniques for treating sexual dysfunctions such as impotence and premature ejaculation. Masters and Johnson's work helped destigmatize open discussion of sexuality, informed the development of sex therapy as a clinical discipline, and challenged prevailing assumptions rooted in Freudian theory and cultural taboo. The pair married in 1971, cementing both their personal and professional bond, though they divorced in 1993.

Later Life and Legacy

Masters and Johnson continued their research and clinical practice through the 1980s and into the 1990s, expanding their work to address topics including sexual orientation, aging and sexuality, and the AIDS epidemic, though some of their later claims drew scientific criticism. Their institute trained a generation of sex therapists and researchers, and their four-phase model of sexual response remains a foundational concept in sexology and medicine today. William Masters died on February 16, 2001, in Tucson, Arizona, at the age of 85. His legacy endures in the widespread acceptance of sex therapy as legitimate medical treatment and in the broader cultural shift toward open, evidence-based discussion of human sexuality. The 2013 Showtime television series "Masters of Sex" dramatized his life and research partnership with Johnson, introducing their story to a new generation and reigniting public interest in their pioneering, if ethically debated, methods.