Walter Dowdle

Walter Reid Dowdle (December 11, 1930 – November 17, 2025) was an American microbiologist. He was the principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 1987 to 1994.

Early life and education Dowdle was born on December 11, 1930, in Irvington, Alabama, and grew up in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. He was the second of four children born to Rebecca Powell, a schoolteacher, and Ruble Dowdle, a Louisville and Nashville Railroad station agent. In 1981, as director of the Center for Infectious Diseases, he was among the first officials to investigate the emergence of what would later be identified as AIDS. He briefly relocated to Washington in 1986 to establish the Office of the Coordinator for AIDS Activities within the Department of Health and Human Services before returning to Atlanta in 1987 as the CDC Deputy Director.

Dowdle retired from the CDC on April 1, 1994. Following his CDC retirement, he joined the Task Force for Global Health, where he worked until 2012 on international initiatives for malaria reduction and polio eradication. He also chaired several HIV vaccine data and safety monitoring boards for global clinical trials in Thailand and the United States.

Death Dowdle died of a soft tissue sarcoma in Hahira, Georgia, on November 17, 2025, at the age of 94. He was survived by his wife and three children.