Parasitology, Harold W. Manter Laboratory of
Date of this Version
2004
Citation
Southwestern Association of Parasitologists, 2004.
Abstract
First two paragraphs:
It is likely that the idea to organize southwestern parasitologists into a regional group originated over cocktails one night in the late 1950s during a regional or national meeting. What is clear is that two men—Drs. Robert E. Kuntz and Donald V. Moore— were instrumental in turning the idea into what has become, in reality, the Southwestern Association of Parasitologists (SWAP). Dr. J. Teague Self (personal communication, 1981) stated, “The beginning of SWAP was an idea of Robert Kuntz who felt that something could be gained if several of us here in the southwest could get together once a year for a day or two and just talk parasitology.” Dr. Moore (personal communication, 1980) noted that he and others “. . . made an early attempt to organize the regional parasitologists at a meeting of the Texas Conference on Diseases in Nature Transmissible to Man, in the spring of 1957 or 1958. After the meeting, we surveyed by mail the persons residing in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. We received a moderately favorable response. We failed to get off the ground because certain persons failed to carry out their assignments” (see scanned, original letters from Moore, January 25, 1980, and Kuntz, February 1, 1980, Appendix, pages 1-5). In spite of this, Kuntz, Moore, and others retained an avid interest in putting together such an organization and they continued to talk about it at annual meetings.
Comments
Copyright 2004, Southwestern Association of Parasitologists. Used by permission.