Renowned sex researcher dies at 87

LONG BEACH, Calif., Sept. 18 (UPI) -- Marilyn Fithian, the U.S. sex therapist and researcher known for her studies on nudity and sexual dysfunction, has died at age 87.

The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that Fithian died last week in Long Beach, Calif., from complications of pneumonia, her granddaughter said.

Fithian, along with William Hartman, founded the Center for Marital and Sexual Studies in Long Beach. Research and treatment of sexual problems were the focus of the center, the newspaper reported.

"They helped legitimize and destigmatize sex research," said Eli Coleman, a past president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality and director of the human sexuality program at the University of Minnesota.

Coleman said Fithian and Hartman's book on sexual dysfunction is one of the most important in the field during the 1970s, along with Masters and Johnson's landmark work "Human Sexual Response."

Fithian was born Sept. 7, 1921, in Wasco, Ore. She earned a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1962 from Cal State Long Beach. She later received a master's degree from California State University, Los Angeles, and became a licensed marriage and family counselor.

She is survived by four children, seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.