In 1960 he was a co-founder of the Central Society for Neurological Research (CSNR) and was president in 1963. He served as President of the American Neurological Association in 1982, having served as Vice-President in 1975. He then served two terms as a director on the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and as president of the Board in 1989. In 1991 he was elected as President-Elect of the American Academy of Neurology and served as President from 1993-1995. Among the professional honors that came to him, three were particularly notable. He was named "Distinguished Alumnus" from the University of Arkansas College of Medicine in 1979 and in 2003 he was named "Mayo Foundation Distinguished Alumnus". In 1994, he received an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland with a citation noting his "ability to merge successfully the clinical discipline of Neurology with the quantitative science of Epidemiology".