Purnomo Projodipuro (April 11, 1934–May 10, 2013)

The many dozens of our Society members who were cli-nicians and scientists assigned to the US Naval Medical Research Unit #2 (NAMRU-2) in Jakarta, Indonesia, during its 40-year presence (1970–2010) in that nation, along with many Indonesian colleagues, are also alumni of the School of Purnomo. This diminutive, quiet, and unassuming scholar and gentleman so profoundly affected nearly all of us professionally and personally that his imprint is as meaningful and lasting as our collective alma maters. His strongest legacy as a mentor and exemplar is that separating those two dimensions—personal and professional—should be virtually impossible. Our work, he instructed us, is a matter of the heart and soul. He considered parasitology and its proper study and practice an imbedded aspect of his inner being. He gave the work a palpable spiritual energy and chided those individuals who approached it dispassionately or impersonally. We strive to convey here the energy and output that was Purnomo as a medical and zoological parasitologist and a supreme master teacher and explorer of these fields. Purnomo was born of Javanese parents at Pontianak on the southwestern coast of Borneo in what was, in 1934, part of The Netherlands East Indies. As a boy at Pontianak, he witnessed firsthand some of the most gruesome and cruel aspects of the Pacific War—only rarely speaking of the events and always with an abject and dark despair at such inhumanity. The family escaped by boat to Jakarta sometime in 1942. At age 11 years, he saw the birth of the Republic of Indonesia and ultimately, new opportunities and possibilities. Purnomo earned a BSc in biology from the National University followed immediately by a second BSc in public health from the University of Indonesia. Remaining in Jakarta, he worked in the Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine , University of Indonesia through the 1950s under the famous Professor Lie Kian You, founder of that department and a role model who Purnomo deeply admired and emulated. Lie Kian You instilled in Purnomo the personal character of humanitarian scientific work as well as the mantra, " we forget what we see; we remember what we hear; we know what we do. " Purnomo's prolific teaching over the decades drove students to doing and practicing under his watchful eyes. In 1972, Purnomo began work as a medical parasitologist at NAMRU-2 Jakarta Detachment. After 35 years of uninterrupted service to that laboratory, he …