Dominic L. Deguisti, a dedicated and internationally know parasitologist and teacher of biological science and medicine, died after a prolonged illness in the suburbs of Detroit on 5 June 2004. He was born in Treviso, Italy, 30 March 1911 and came to the United States with his parents Angelo and Agella in 1916. He became a naturalized citizen in 1925. He earned a B.S. degree at the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1936 and an M.S. degree studying parasites from the University of Michigan in 1938. He was a DuPont Fellow at the University of Wisconsin where he earned a Ph.D. degree in 1942. His dissertation described in detail the life cycle of Leptorhychodies thecatus. The acanthocephalans and parasites of fish in general were a lifelong interest although his area of study and that of his students was broad in scope.
During his early career, 1942–1949,...