Don Bacon

Donald Frederick Bacon (6 April 1926 – 28 August 2020) was a New Zealand microbiologist. In 1966, he was appointed the inaugural professor of microbiology at Massey University, where he remained until his retirement in 1989.

Biography Born in Gisborne on 6 April 1926, Bacon was the son of Mabel Tui Bacon (née Allott) and Frederick George Bacon. He was educated at Gisborne High School, and in 1944 began training as a medical laboratory technician at Cook Hospital. From 1951, he worked as an assistant lecturer in the Department of Microbiology at Otago, assisting Molly Marples in the teaching of the second-year course and the introduction of the third-year course in microbiology. While at Yale, Bacon met his future wife, Flo Thanassi, a research assistant at the university; they became engaged in 1957 and later married.

Bacon died in Palmerston North on 28 August 2020, aged 94. He had been predeceased by his wife, Flo, in 2010.