Knee Replacement Pioneer, Russell Windsor Dies Age 70

Russell E. Windsor, M.D., a pioneer in knee replacement, tragically passed away after a fatal cycling accident in Amagansett, New York, on July 3, 2022. He was 70.

Windsor was fascinated with medicine at a young age and could be found studying anatomy textbooks for fun as a child. He was very passionate about helping others and always knew he wanted to be a physician.

An integral moment in his medical education was when he did a fellowship under John Insall, M.D. chief of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, founding member of The Knee Society and one of the original fathers of total knee replacement surgery.

Windsor went on to have his own significant impact on the field of orthopedic surgery. He was a designer of several innovative and widely used total knee replacement systems, including the Rotating Hinge Knee and the Zimmer Unicompartmental Knee. Throughout his medical career, he was especially interested in surgical applications of computer-assisted navigation and robotics in knee replacement and the treatment of complex deformities of the knee.

For over 35 years, he was an attending orthopedic surgeon in the Adult Reconstruction & Joint Replacement Surgery Service at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. He also served as a professor of orthopedic surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine for more than 25 years and was chief of the knee service from 1991 to 2006.

Windsor was a member of the International Society of Arthroscopy Knee Surgery and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine, the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, and the American Knee Society. He served as president of the American Knee Society in 2005. He was also an international member of the European Knee Society.

Educating younger generations of orthopedic surgeons was important to Windsor. He wrote over 60 original publications and contributed chapters in 40 textbooks. He also presented his work and served as faculty member in over 250 national and international seminars.

Windsor spent 15 years helping to train orthopedic and trauma surgeons in Eastern Europe through the American Austrian Foundation Salzburg Seminars, Open Medical Institute. He also mentored hundreds of residents and fellows before retiring in 2021.

Windsor was born on March 13, 1952, to Alberta and Russell W. Windsor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended LaSalle High School, and then Georgetown University for his bachelor’s degree and his medical degree. He went on to the University of Pennsylvania for his orthopaedic surgery residency and Hospital for Special Surgery for a fellowship in knee reconstructive surgery.

Music was also a passion of Windsor’s. He was an accomplished classical pianist and loved listening to orchestral classical music. His favorite composers were Bruckner, Rachmaninoff, and Beethoven. He supported both Carnegie Hall and the Salzburg Music Festival.

Always active, he loved playing, and coaching and watching his favorite sports, baseball, rowing, and cycling. A wine connoisseur, he had a collection of over 4,000 bottles from all over the world and was a member of the New York chapter of the Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin.

A devoted husband and father, Windsor is survived by his wife, Theresa Windsor; his daughter, Gillian Windsor and her husband, Matt Wilson; his son, Russell J. Windsor; and his son, Eric Windsor and his wife, Madeline Lang. He had also recently become a grandfather to his first grandson, Jackson Windsor Wilson. He is also survived by his sister, Andrea Windsor.