Jun 13, 2021

David John McAdoo, PhD, was born in Washington Hospital, August 11, 1941, the oldest of four children of Donald and Helen Bromley McAdoo. He died April 12, 2020, at his home in Georgetown, Texas, of Lewy Body Dementia.

David grew up in western Pennsylvania, curious and active. He amassed, with his brother, an impressive collection of Woodland Indian artifacts, trapped animals and hunted with bow and arrow, wrestled with the high school (and college) team and received deserved scholastic honors. He received his bachelor of science degree from Lafayette College (Easton, Pa.), worked for a year with the Food & Drug Administration in Philadelphia and was then employed a year at Union Carbide in White Plains, N.Y. which is where he met and later (1967) married a fellow chemist, Martha Hervey.

While serving in the Army (1965-1967) and working with the mass spectrometer, he met his future mentor, Dr. Fred W. McLafferty. David earned his PhD under McLafferty at Purdue and Cornell University, and the two of them used the mass spectrometer to discover a theretofore unknown molecule. After a post-doc at Johns Hopkins, David worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. until he was enticed to work for the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, where he spent his 35 year career in the neurosciences doing research, training and teaching.

David published more than 220 papers, in addition to book chapters, and lectured nationally and internationally. But his life was more than honors, awards, grants and professional activities. David continued to pursue his interests in archeology, spelunking (Pennsylvania to Mexico), birding, the Texas Master Naturalist activities and traveling. He was a loving parent to two adopted children. For exercise, he rode his bicycle to work, climbed the stairs to his 10th floor office and cleaned the home swimming pool.

David retired to Georgetown, Texas in 2008 with his second wife, Gail Wetzel, whom he married in 1997 following Martha’s death. With Gail, David traveled to Machu Pichui (for their honeymoon), Canada, Italy, Japan, Spain, the Amazon, Egypt, Costa Rica and the U.S.A.

Dr. McAdoo was preceded in death by his parents, Donald and Helen; his beloved wife, Martha; his sister, Patricia Thompson; his brother, Donald; his niece, Lee Thompson; and numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and in-laws.

Surviving are his sister Rebecca McAdoo; his daughter, Catherine McAdoo; his son, Matthew McAdoo; grandchildren, Chloe and David; and wife, Gail Wetzel McAdoo, who all miss this humble genius who had a dry sense of humor. As proclaimed in David’s high school yearbook, “Through the years the wonder grew, how one small head held all he knew.”

Family and friends will be received from 10 until 10:45 a.m., the time of the military walk-thru, Friday, June 18, followed by a memorial service at 11 a.m. in the Jerome A. Stefkovich Funeral Home Inc., 18 Campbell Street, Avella, PA 15312. Full military rites will be accorded graveside by Bert C. Siders American Legion Post 643 of Avella. Interment will be in Independence Cemetery, Avella.

Rather than flowers, donations in his name may be made to the Lewy Body Foundation, 912 Killian Hill Road SW, Liburn, GA 30347.

Condolences may be expressed at www.stefkovichfuneralhome.com.