Dr. David Francis Clyde, a world-renowned malaria expert whose experiences and research in Tanzania led to a greater understanding of the disease, died of pancreatic cancer Tuesday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. He was 77.
Born in Meruit, India, the son of a physician, he was sent to England at age 7 to study. He was evacuated from England at the start of World War II and sent to Kansas City, Kan., where he lived with relatives and graduated from high school in 1942.
He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas in 1946 and earned his medical degree from McGill University in 1949.
After completing his internship, he entered the British Colonial Medical Service and was stationed in Tanganyika, now Tanzania, where he served as a clinician, malariologist, senior epidemiologist and deputy surgeon general.
While serving in Tanzania he observed the ravages of malaria firsthand and became convinced of the necessity of a vaccine.
His research in the field earned him a doctorate in parasitology from the University of London in 1963.
In 1966, Dr. Clyde left Tanzania and moved to Baltimore, where he joined the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and continued his research into the prevention of malaria and developing various therapies.
"Of singular importance at this time were his pioneering studies which formed the basis of our search for an anti-malaria vaccine," said longtime friend and colleague Dr. Clive J. Shiff, associate professor in the department of molecular microbiology at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
"He even served as a volunteer in the study to demonstrate that immunity to infection could be inferred following the bite of irradiated, infected Anopheles mosquitoes, a fact of which he was proud although he only confided the episode to close friends," said Dr. Shiff, who lives in Pikesville.
From 1975 to 1979, he was director of the department of tropical medicine at Louisiana State University School of Medicine. In 1979, he became head of the World Health Organization's Southeast Asia Division and was based in Delhi.
He returned to Baltimore in 1985 to teach parasitology at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health until retiring this year.
Until 1992, he also served as chief of malaria studies at the University of Maryland's Center for Vaccine Development.
"He was a prominent figure in the field of malaria research and just a splendid person to work with," said Dr. Theodore E. Woodward, an expert in infectious diseases and former chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Dr. Clyde also developed a reputation among the medical students as being an exciting and informed lecturer.
"It was at Hopkins that his prowess as a teacher blossomed," said Dr. Shiff. "His encyclopedic knowledge based on years of hard and varied experience from East Africa gave him a breadth of understanding which was greatly appreciated by his students."
Dr. Clyde, whose work in the field of malaria earned him many prestigious awards, was the author of several books.
"His hobby was malaria," said his wife of 53 years, the former Kathleen Templeton. "And he could sit for hours at the microscope looking for parasites on slides."
Services were held yesterday.
In addition to his wife, Dr. Clyde is survived by two daughters, Frances E. Ahern of Lutherville and Victoria A. Clyde of Dallas; and a granddaughter.