William Masters life and biography

William Howell Masters (December 27, 1915 – February 16, 2001) was an American gynecologist, best known as the senior member of the Masters and Johnson sexuality research team. Along with Virginia Eshelman Johnson, he pioneered research into the nature of human sexual response and the diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders and dysfunctions from 1957 until the 1990s.

Famous sexual researcher who, along with Virginia Johnson, paid men and women to masturbate and engage in sexual intercourse while they were equipped with surgical cameras, electrocardiographs, and electroencephalograms.

Building on the work of Alfred Kinsey, Masters debunked many sexual myths of the day, including some instigated by Sigmund Freud. Public response to the work was so enthusiastic that Masters & Johnson released their results, Human Sexual Response, in both academic and general release publications. The work introduced the world to the four phases of sexual response: excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution.

He was a member of Alpha Delta Phi, and became a faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis. Masters met Johnson in 1957 when he hired her as a research assistant to undertake a comprehensive study of human sexuality. Masters divorced his first wife to marry Johnson in 1971. They divorced two decades later, largely bringing their joint research and business parternership to an end. Masters died in Tucson, Arizona on February 16, 2001.

Read more