Deceased Members  

Duard Lee Walker, M.D., Paul F. Clark Professor, Emeritus, of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, died Monday, 14 September 2009. During a distinguished career at the University of Wisconsin- Madison that spanned nearly four decades, he trained many future academicians and made major contributions in basic research, teaching, administration and academic service.  

Professor Walker was born on 2 June 1921 in Bishop, Calif., and grew up on his family's farm. He received a bachelor's degree (Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of California (Berkeley) in 1943, graduated from the University of California Medical School, San Francisco, in 1945, and received a master's degree in Anatomy in 1947, also from the University of California at Berkeley. Walker completed his internship at the U.S. Naval Hospital in San Francisco and a residency in internal medicine at San Francisco General Hospital and Stanford University. He obtained postgraduate research training in virology at the Rockefeller Institute in New York City and in immunology at the Hooper Institute in San Francisco. In addition to his medical and scientific training and academic service, Duard served on active military duty with the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1946 and 1953 to 1955, and retired with the rank of Captain from the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1981.  

Walker married Dorothea V. McHenry on 11 August 1945. Together they raised four children, Douglas, Donna Fisher (Bruce), David (Tracy) and Diane Craig (Alan); and later enjoyed three grandchildren, Kate Fisher, Lesley Fisher and Lorelle Craig.  

In 1952 Walker accepted an appointment as Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology in the University of Wisconsin Medical School. He was promoted to Professor in 1959 and served as Chair of the department from 1970 to 1976 and from 1981 to 1988. He was named the Paul F. Clark Professor of Medical Microbiology in 1988 and retired at the end of that year.  

During his 36 years on the faculty, Walker was recognized as a gifted teacher of graduate and professional school students. He was an instructor in and later director of the UW Medical School course on microbiology and infectious disease. He advised and mentored many graduate students and fellows, both in his own laboratory and throughout the Department of Medical Microbiology. He was a member of numerous editorial boards and medical societies, and his opinion was sought for national advisory boards.  

Walker will be remembered for his important work in on the viral interactions with host cells that allow the establishment of viral latency. Together with his long-time collaborator Billie Padgett, in 1971 his lab isolated the JC virus and showed it was the causal agent of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a devastating neurological disease in immunocompromised patients. Walker, Padgett, and their collaborators went on to demonstrate and characterize the oncogenic potential of JC virus. Work in Walker's laboratory was fundamental to delineating the distribution in the population and epidemiology of JC virus, developing techniques for its diagnosis in the laboratory, and characterizing its capacity to cause opportunistic infections. For this work, Walker was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1990.  

Walker was a collaborative scientist; being collaborative was a natural extension of who he was, a kind, warm, outgoing and energetic individual. He had extraordinary dedication to mentoring and advancing the careers of young women scientists and professional colleagues. He was exceptionally generous in providing research funds and space to woman scientists at a time when this was not the norm. Duard and his wife Dorothea, or Mac as she is known, shared more than 64 years of marriage. They enjoyed dancing and, especially, their family. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him.  

Dick Frisque  
Pennsylvania State University, University Park  
Chuck Czuprynski  
Harry Hinze  
Dennis G Maki  
June E. Osborn  
William Weidanz  
Gabriele ZuRhein  
University of Wisconsin, Madison  

Michael Joseph Pelczar, Jr., a noted educator and researcher, died on 13 October 2009 at the age of 93. Many of today's microbiologists will recall that their first introduction to microbiology was through one or another of his textbooks. He touched many lives with his wisdom and he was a revered mentor to his graduate students.  

Pelczar earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1936 and Master of Science degree in 1938 in bacteriology from the University of Maryland, College Park. He earned his Ph.D. in bacteriology under the direction of Roger Porter in 1941 from the State University of Iowa. During World War II, he served with the Army's 15th General Hospital unit in Europe. He remained in the reserves, where he attained the rank of lieutenant colonel. From 1946-1966 he was Professor of Microbiology at the University of Maryland, and in 1966 he was appointed Vice President for Graduate Studies and Research. After retiring in 1978, he served as President of the Council of Graduate Schools in the United States before retiring a second time in 1984. He and his wife, Merna Foss Pelczar, moved to the family home, Avalon Farm, on the shore of Chesapeake Bay in Chester. She died in 2007.  

Pelczar was probably best known for his textbooks, which have been widely used on college campuses and have influenced thousands of students. In the late 1950s, he saw biology emerging as one of the top priorities in science and that, among the biological sciences, microbiology was gaining new stature. He and Roger D. Reid of the Office of Naval Research wrote the first edition of Microbiology, which soon gained wide acceptance. This was followed by four later editions, some coauthored with E. C. S. Chan and N. R. Krieg. His wife, Merna, also contributed greatly to these textbooks. In all editions, Pelczar maintained a balanced treatment between fundamental (or basic) microbiology and applied microbiology, showing how basic research could be integrated into practical application. His other texts included Elements of Microbiology in 1981 (with E. C. S. Chan), and Microbiology: Concepts and Applications in 1993 (with E. C. S. Chan and N. R. Krieg). Laboratory manuals describing experiments that had been thoroughly pretested to make sure they would work for beginning students always accompanied these texts.  

Pelczar was also an active researcher whose articles encompassed many areas of bacterial physiology and nutrition. His specialty was the the nutrition, taxonomy, and DNA base composition of Neisseria species, such as N. caviae. Other research concerned the nutrition of microbacteria and sporefoming thermophilic bacilli; the effect of culture media on lipolytic activity; bacterial degradation of lignin; techniques for measuring the survival of airborne bacteria; fatty acid requirements of treponemes, and syntrophisms among the lactic acid bacteria. In 1955, together with P. A. Hansen, and W. A. Konetzka, he authored Quantitative Bacterial Physiology Laboratory Experiments for use in an advanced undergraduate or elementary graduate courses.  

During his career, Pelczar served ASM in innumerable ways. He was an editor of the Journal of Bacteriology and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, where he served on the Board of Governors. In 1957, he chaired the Committee on Bacteriological Techniques of the Society of American Bacteriologists, which produced the reference book Manual of Microbiological Methods, edited by H. W. Conn and containing various techniques described by 16 specialists. In 1995, Pelczar was selected as the recipient of the ASM Distinguished Service Award. He was involved in the establishment of the Chesapeake Research Consortium and the Sea Grant Program at the University of Maryland.  

Gardening was an important part of Pelczar's later years, and he always showed off his garden with great pride. Mike and Merna were "modern-day" parents. They often communicated by e-mail with their children and grandchildren. Mike is survived by one son, Michael R.; five daughters, Ann, Patricia, Rita, Josephine, and Julia; and 21 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.  

Noel R. Krieg  
Virginia Tech  
Blacksburg, Va.