Martin J. Ulmer: 1920–2009

Martin J. Ulmer, parasitologist at Iowa State University from 1950 to 1983 and longtime member of the American Society of Parasitologists, died on January 7, 2009, at the age of 88. Dr. Ulmer was born in Toledo, OH, on June 4, 1920. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Michigan in 1942 and 1943 and taught zoology at the U.S. Army Training Command in Italy during World War II. After the war, he returned to the University of Michigan, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1950 under the tutelage of Professor George R. LaRue. LaRue was one of a cohort of outstanding students trained by Henry Baldwin Ward, the founder of The Journal of Parasitology and the American Society of Parasitologists. Ward had in turn been trained by Professor Rudolf Leuckart, considered by many to be the “father of parasitology.” At Iowa State, Dr. Ulmer taught...