Summary: | Bacteriologist Welton I. Taylor was born in Birmingham, Alabama on November 12, 1919. He completed his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in bacteriology at the University of Illinois, taking time between degrees to serve in an all-African American combat unit in World War II. As a young microbiology instructor at his alma mater, Taylor discovered that common antibiotics could treat gangrene and tetanus. In 1954, he helped Chicago meatpacking giant Swift & Company combat an outbreak of salmonella poisoning, developing a standardized solution he exported worldwide. In subsequent years, Taylor was sought out to solve an array of health problems. The Food and Drug Administration continues to rely on methods of bacteria detection he developed. For more than fifty-five years, Taylor contributed to community organizations in the Chicago neighborhood where he lived with his wife, Jayne, whom he married in 1945. The couple had two daughters, Karyn and Shelley. Taylor passed away on November 1, 2012.
|