Member

David was born on November 15, 1941, in Stockton, California. He grew up in Carmel, California, where he attended the public elementary school and high school. His father was the music teacher and band director at Carmel High School. David entered Humboldt State College in Arcata, California, in 1959 as a forestry major, switching to a botany major after one year. In 1963, he received a BS degree in botany with an emphasis on “lower plants.” From 1963 to 1965, David studied fungi in the Class Trichomycetes with Robert Lichtwardt at the University of Kansas, and received an MS degree in 1965. David continued his study of fungi working on aquatic Phycomycetes with Frederick Sparrow at the University of Michigan and Robert Paterson at Virginia Tech. Summers from 1962 through 1969 were spent taking courses and conducting research at the University of Michigan Biological Station at Douglas Lake. In 1975, he received a PhD degree from Virginia Tech. His thesis was entitled Aquatic Phycomycetes in the Lotic Environment. Since 1975, David has worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland. His research is in the area of plant pathogenic microfungi. Current work involves Septoria and allied genera, which are pathogens of blueberries and other economically important crops. He is the senior author of Fungi on Plants and Plant Products in the U.S., which is a widely used reference on the nomenclature, taxonomy, and distribution of fungi in the U.S. He often teaches a course on mushrooms for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Graduate School and has given many talks to local organizations about mushrooms and fungi. David early on understood the importance of computer databases and has led the efforts of his laboratory in completing the computerization of the National Fungus Collections and the Stevenson Reference Library. These databases as well as others are available through the internet. In 1963, David married Ellen Roberta Milhous in Arcata, California. David and his wife live in Beltsville, Maryland. David was elected to the Washington Biologists’ Field Club in 1979.