Dr. Thomas Herrick Milhorat

Dr. Thomas H. Milhorat, Renowned Neurosurgeon and Scholar, Dies at 89

Dr. Thomas Herrick Milhorat, a pioneering neurosurgeon whose research reshaped the understanding and treatment of disorders of cerebrospinal fluid and Chiari malformations, died at 12:05 a.m. on December 13, 2025, in Norwalk, Conn. He was 89.

Over a career spanning more than five decades, Dr. Milhorat was widely regarded as one of the leading neurosurgeons in the United States. Known for both his scientific rigor and surgical skill, his influence extended across academic medicine, clinical practice, and generations of physicians he trained.

Born in Manhattan on April 5, 1936, Dr. Milhorat grew up in Pelham Manor, N.Y. He earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from Cornell University and Cornell Medical School, where he received numerous academic honors, including first prize in pathology and the Charles L. Horn Prize for leadership and service.

After completing his internship and neurosurgical residency at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Milhorat served as a lieutenant commander in the United States Public Health Service, with a research assignment at the Surgical Neurology Branch of the National Institutes of Health. There, his investigations into the origin and circulation of cerebrospinal fluid led to major advances in understanding the blood-brain barrier, the choroid plexus, and the role of metabolic water in cerebrospinal fluid production, work that helped define what became known as the "third circulation." His findings were published in leading scientific journals, including Science, The New England Journal of Medicine, and The Journal of Neurosurgery.

In 1971, Dr. Milhorat was appointed Chief of Neurosurgery at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and joined the faculty of the George Washington University School of Medicine. By 1974, he was believed to be the youngest full professor of neurosurgery in the country. In 1981, at the request of the American Board of Neurological Surgery, he returned to New York to help restore a failing residency program. For the next two decades, he served as Professor and Chairman of Neurosurgery at SUNY Downstate School of Medicine and as Neurosurgeon-in-Chief at Kings County Hospital Center, where he trained generations of neurosurgeons and reestablished a fully accredited residency program.

In 2001, Dr. Milhorat was recruited by North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System to build a unified Department of Neurosurgery and to help shape what would become the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra University. There, he founded the Harvey Cushing Institutes of Neuroscience and the Chiari Institute, drawing patients from around the world. Over the course of his career, he performed approximately 25,000 neurosurgical operations.

Dr. Milhorat published more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific articles and authored influential medical texts, including Hydrocephalus and the Cerebrospinal Fluid and Pediatric Neurosurgery. He retired from North Shore University Hospital in 2016. In recognition of his contributions to medicine and neuroscience, he received numerous honors, including a White House Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. In his later years, he published three works of fiction exploring the ethical and human dimensions of life and medicine.

Dr. Milhorat is survived by his wife, Edith; their two sons, John and Robert; and five grandchildren, Kylie, Melia, Joy, Rylee, and Bryce, all of Westchester County. He was a beloved husband and father, a devoted grandfather, and a physician whose influence extended far beyond the operating room.

A public wake will be held Friday, December 19, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Ballard Funeral Home in White Plains, N.Y., with a eulogy to be delivered at 5:30 p.m by his eldest grandchild Kylie Milhorat.

His family remembers him with pride and gratitude for the life he lived, the standards he set, and the care he gave so many.