Inventor of Valium, Once the Most Often Prescribed Drug, Dies

He continued his research and by the end of 1959 came up with diazepam, which LaRoche's marketing department dubbed Valium, after the Latin word for healthy. Better than Librium because it was more effective in smaller doses, and useful for more problems, the drug prompted the company to launch one of the most intensive advertising campaigns in history, up to that point. Valium brought in $600 million in 1978 alone.

Sternbach was paid $1 for the patent to this pharmaceutical gold mine and $10,000 per year for 10 years.

His other major breakthroughs include the sleeping pills Dalmane and Mogadon, Klonopin for epileptic seizures and Arfonad for limiting bleeding during brain surgery. He held more than 240 patents.

In 2004, the Wall Street Journal said he developed 12 drugs that had a total of $10 billion worth of sales over four decades. For years, profits from his inventions accounted for 40 percent of LaRoche's annual drug sales.

He didn't care that his discoveries didn't make him a multimillionaire. "What's important is that you love the work you do," he said.

Named one of the 25 most influential Americans of the 20th century by U.S. News & World Report, Sternbach had a Yale University lecture named after him, and he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005.

A ramrod-straight man, bespectacled, with a shock of white hair, sparkling blue eyes and a piquant sense of humor, Sternbach occasionally would ski to his New Jersey office.

He and his wife moved to North Carolina in 2003.

His elder son said Sternbach became weak and bedridden about a week ago. He did not have a chronic disease.

"No medications, nothing," Michael Sternbach said. "His lungs were clear, his heart, kidneys and mind were functioning. He just went into a general decline and stopped breathing."

Survivors include his wife of 64 years, Herta Kreuzer Sternbach, of Chapel Hill; two sons; and five grandchildren.