He devoted his career to the study of pain, establishing it as a multidisciplinary field. He believed a team approach to the field of pain management, incorporating various specialties to treat acute and chronic pain. His concept for these pain clinics developed in the 1950s and by 1977, 175 pain centers were operative in the United States. He created residency programs, chaired departments, wrote standard texts in the field, and had his work published in numerous languages. In 1966 he became president of the American Society of Anesthesiology. In 1960 Bonica founded the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle where he established his Multidisciplinary Pain Center. Bonica died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 77 at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota. His wife died in the same summer. Bonica wrote and edited 41 books, while contributing to 60 others. 241 articles bear his authorship. Considered a standard in the field, his The Management of Pain was published in 1953. His masterpiece was considered The Management of Pain, Second Edition (1990). After his wife nearly died on anaesthesia related complications during the birth of their first child, Bonica began to focus on the study of pain control. His subsequent Principles and Practice of Obstetric and Analgesic Anesthesia (1967, 1994) became an enduring legacy used worldwide. In 1990, Pope John Paul II requested to have a copy of The Management of Pain for his own personal library. During his long career, Bonica received international acclaim and awards: