Pearce Bailey entered medical school after obtaining a PhD (1933) at the University of Paris/Sorbonne and directing the Psychological Center of Paris (1933-1936). After graduating from medical school, he completed a two year residency in Neurology at the Cornell Division of Bellevue Hospital and then became Chief of Neurology at the Philadelphia Naval Hospital for two years having become a Commissioned Commander in the Naval Reserve. One additional year of active duty as Chief of Neurology of the Veterans Administration in Washington, D.C. was followed by an appointment to Georgetown University and D.C. General Hospitals. He became Clinical Professor at Georgetown in 1950 when the neurology department was organized under the leadership of Francis Forster with whom Bailey would often thereafter collaborate in pursuit of their mutual interests in neurology, epilepsy, medical education, and research. In 1951, Bailey became the founding director of the National Institutes of Neurological Diseases and Blindness (NINDB). Bailey left the NINDB in 1959 and moved to Antwerp to direct the NINDB International Research Program. In 1962 he moved to Puerto Rico, joining William Windle, at the NINDS-sponsored primate research center as Special Assistant to the NINCDS Director and Chief of the Inter-American Activities branch.
Throughout his career, Bailey advocated for improving neurological care, education, and research. Although his tenure at the NINDB was only 8 years, his leadership resulted in the initiation of intramural programs for the study of epilepsy, neuromuscular diseases, deafness, and the epidemiology of neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis and kuru as well as the initiation of important collaborative extramural research projects including what would become the Collaborative Perinatal Project.
In addition to his numerous clinical and scientific publications on epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, stroke, spinal cord injury, and muscular dystrophy, Bailey wrote several biographies and translated George Guillain’s biography of Jean Martin Charcot into English. Bailey participated in founding the World Federation of Neurology in 1957, serving as Secretary-Treasurer for six years. Bailey’s international contributions were recognized by honorary memberships in neurological societies and with other honors from Argentina, Rio de Janeiro, Montivideo, Peru, Japan, Greece, France, and Germany.