Thursday, June 27, 2024
I just found the obituary and send my very belated condolences to his family.
Dr. Midlige in essence determined my working career when I was was a student at FDU. I took a course in microbiology in 1965 with him, and worked in the lab as a work study student in 1966. He was just finishing up his Ph.D. at Lehigh and working on a couple of experiments in his lab/office with fish viruses. He invited me to watch him work and I was fascinated by the cells in a single layer on the bottom of the glass culture bottles and the fact that when he unwrapped the pipettes from their glassine bags he just threw them on the floor to keep the lab bench clear (I'm not a neatnick). When he finished I told him I liked what he was doing and he said "Paul, if you want to do research in an area with no competition, go into fish viruses". As an avowed introvert, I took that to heart and went on to get a masters and Ph.D. working on fish viruses and continued in that research area as a faculty member at the University of Maine and Oregon State University until I retired in 2007.
He was a wonderful, inspirational instructor and a wonderful person whom I admired very much. I owe him a lot, and I'll continue to think of him as long as I'm around.
