On 5 April 2001, Dr. Donald Fairbairn passed away at Kingston General Hospital in Kingston, Ontario. He was 86. He was a highly accomplished individual; a loving husband, father, and grandfather; a scientist; and an outstanding mentor. He was a graduate of Queen's University and the University of Rochester. After service in World War II, he became a faculty member at McGill University. In 1962 he was appointed head of the Zoology Department at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he established an international center for research on the biochemistry of parasites. Dedicated to his family and his profession, Don Fairbairn was active in university affairs; served as a consultant, advisor, and officer of national and international scientific societies; and was an editor of scientific journals.
Don Fairbairn was probably best known in parasitology circles for the impressive training program that he established at the University of Massachusetts that...