Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Willis Alton Reid Jr., Ph.D., an eminent parasitologist, passed away on 23 February 2004. Dr. Reid had a long and distinguished career in parasitology and served his discipline and country most admirably.
Willis was born on 15 September 1941 in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1963, Willis graduated as a Distinguished Military Graduate with a bachelor's of science degree in zoology (cum laude) from North Carolina State University where he studied under Dr. Grover C. Miller. He received his M.A. in zoology/parasitology in 1965 from the University of Kansas at Lawrence, where he studied hemiurid trematodes of Formosan marine fishes under the direction of Dr. William H. Coil.
From 1965 to 1967 Willis worked as a parasitologist in the Department of Medical Zoology, Division of Communicable Diseases and Immunology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, D.C. There, he engaged in research in the biology...