Dr. Gerald Thomas Perkoff, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Missouri School of Medicine-Columbia, died Sunday, Dec. 25. He was 86 and a longtime resident of Columbia, Mo.

Dr. Perkoff was born Sept. 22, 1926 in St. Louis, to the late Nathan and Ann Schwartz Perkoff.

Dr. Perkoff graduated from Washington University and received his medical degree from the Washington University School of Medicine in 1948. After an internship and residency in Salt Lake City at the University of Utah, Dr. Perkoff became an investigator at the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Disease at the National Institutes of Health from 1952 to 1954. Dr. Perkoff taught at the University of Utah from 1954 to 1962 and served as chief of the medical service of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Salt Lake City from 1961 to 1963.

In 1963, Dr. Perkoff returned to St. Louis and the Washington University School of Medicine, joining the faculty as associate professor of Medicine. He served as professor of Medicine from 1965 to 1979 and as director of the Division of Health Care Research from 1968 to1979.

In 1979, Dr. Perkoff became a curators’ professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine.

Dr. Larry Shapiro, the vice chancellor and dean of the Washington University Medical School said, “Dr. Perkoff was one of my teachers so many years ago. I remember him with great fondness and respect. He was a real pioneer in health care services research and managed care. He was years ahead of his time. He made a real difference to Washington University and to medicine.”

Dr. Perkoff had been a longtime member of Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis and of Congregation Beth Shalom in Columbia.

Funeral services were held Tuesday, Dec 27 at Congregation Beth Shalom in Columbia, Mo. Burial was in Columbia Cemetery.

Survivors include his wife of 67 years, Marion Maizner Perkoff of Columbia, Mo.; a son, David Perkoff of Austin, Texas; daughters Judy Perkoff Smith of Indianapolis, Ind. and Susan Perkoff Stombaugh of Seattle, Wash.; a brother, Simon Perkoff of San Francisco, and six grandchildren.

Memorial contributions can be made to Congregation Beth Shalom, 500 West Green Meadows Road, Columbia, Mo. 65203.