Fellow members of the American Society of Parasitologists (ASP), it is my pleasure today to introduce you to our president, Dr. Reginald Brent Blaylock, or “Reg” as we all know him. Reg was born in Waynesville, North Carolina, the only child of the late Joseph Frank and Ramona Lee Buckner Blaylock. Reg attended elementary and high school in this mountain community of western North Carolina, graduating from high school in June 1982. After graduation, Reg moved to the piedmont region of North Carolina to attend Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem.
Although I did not remember this until he and I were talking about his early experiences at Wake Forest, my initial contact with Reg occurred at a retreat (1982) that was held each August just before the beginning of the fall semester. I was one of the faculty mentors for that retreat and Reg was one of the students in...