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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Charles L. Wisseman, Jr.
Charles L. Wisseman, Jr., one of the 20th century's outstanding rickettsiologists,, died on July 12, 1998 after several months' illness; he was 77. Wisseman, who headed the Department of Microbiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine from 1954 until his retirement in 1986, championed the study of rickettsial diseases for decades and in many respects ensured its survival as a separate discipline. He was among the first to realize that because of the complex ecology, natural history, and epidemiology of rickettsial diseases, scientists from multiple disciplines were needed to study these diseases. He attracted a strong, multi-disciplinary cadre of colleagues and associates who worked on a broad array of public health problems, including epidemic typhus, murine typhus, scrub typhus, trench fever, Q fever, and various spotted fever rickettsioses. Studies ranged from cell biology, physiology and pathogenesis to immunology, antibiotic therapy, ecology and evolution.
Wisseman was born in Texas in 1920. He received undergraduate degrees in biology and chemistry from Southern Methodist University in 1941 and a Masters degree in Parasitology from Kansas State College in 1942. He earned an M.D. degree, with honors, from Southwestern Medical School and later did internships at Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals in Boston. He then served in the U.S Army Medical Corps from 1946 through 1954. It was during that period when he developed an interest in rickettsial diseases, which would provide the focus of his career. From 1948 through 1954, he was assigned to the Department of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he and other well known rickettsiologists (Marilyn Bozeman, Bennett Elisberg, Hope Hopps, Elizabeth Jackson, Phil Paterson and Fred Hahn) worked under the strong tutelage of Joseph Smadel. Their work included early studies on chemotheraphy and chemoprophylaxis of scrub typhus and other diseases in Malaysia in 1954. He also was a member of the field team studying hemorrhagic fevers, including hantavirus infections, in Korea in 1954.
After he joined the University of Maryland, Wisseman broadened his already considerable scope of activities. He supervised field studies in Pakistan (1962-1964), where he and colleagues discovered the incredible diversity among spotted fever rickettsiae, which remains an area of intense investigation. Epidemics of louse-borne typhus took him to Burundi in 1967 and Bolivia in 1968, where he performed field trials of the attenuated Madrid E vaccine. In the 1970s, he participated in field studies of murine typhus in Ethiopia.
In recognition of his considerable expertise, Wisseman was selected member and later Director of the Armed Forces Epidemiologic Board, Commission on Rickettsial Diseases, which served as a principal forum for rickettsial disease issues. During his tenure on the board, he also chaired its ad hoc Committee on Q fever vaccine. Wisseman was trustee of the American Type Culture Collection and member of the Advisory Committee to the Gorgas Memorial laboratories in Panama and served on many other boards and commissions. He was selected to several honorary and scholastic organizations and was a member of numerous professional societies, including the American Academy of Microbiology, the Belgian Society of Tropical Medicine, the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine, and the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. In 1972, he received the Department of the Army's Outstanding Civilian Service Award.
After the Armed Forces Epidemiologic Board was disbanded in the early 1970s, Wisseman recognized the importance of developing another venue for discussing rickettsial disease issues on a regular basis. With Emilio Weiss, David Paretsky, and others, he founded the American Society for Rickettsiology (ASR), served as its first Secretary-Treasurer and organized the initial meeting of the society at Port Deposit, Maryland. He remained active in society affairs until his retirement in 1980, and he continued to attend both national and international meetings on rickettisal diseases until his death.
Wisseman is survived by his wife, Jane, four children, and six grandchildren. Jane frequently accompanied Charlie to ASR meetings and endeared herself to ASR members and spouses alike. In one sense, Wisseman's death marks the passing of an era. Yet, work on rickettsial diseases remains vibrant, a testimony that he and other pioneers of the 20th century have left a lasting legacy and society will be the beneficiary.
Joseph E. McDade