Walter E. Martin; USC Expert on Parasites

Walter E. Martin, 90, nationally recognized expert on fish and bird parasites. A USC zoologist, Martin was engaged by the Navy, the U.S. Public Health Service, the Atomic Energy Commission and other organizations to study parasites that caused diseases such as schistosomiasis. He conducted research in such locations as Egypt, Honduras, Taiwan, the Philippines and Eniwetok atoll in the South Pacific. Born in DeKalb, Ill., Martin earned a bachelor’s degree in education at Northern Illinois University and a master’s and doctorate in zoology and parasitology at Purdue University. He taught biology at Purdue for three years and at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., for 10 years. For three summers, he taught at the marine biology laboratory of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. Martin came to USC in 1947 and chaired the zoology department from 1948 to 1954, the zoology and botany departments from 1954 to 1955, and the biology department from 1955 to 1959. He retired in 1974. He was president of the Southern California Society of Parasitologists and of the USC chapter of Sigma Xi, a national honor society that encourages scientific research. On Saturday in Torrance of a heart attack.