David Wayne Walters

He was born in Austin, Texas on August 26, 1952. When he was old enough to be drafted, he possessed a number which came close to being selected. Having no interest in being drafted into the U.S. Army, he instead voluntarily joined the U.S. Marine Corps, entering active duty in 1973. Due to his perfect vision, the U.S.M.C. expressed interest in sending him on a path to become an aviator. Wayne declined this offer and remained with the infantry. Wayne completed the U.S.M.C. Officer Candidate School. He was an infantry officer and received the Pistol Expert Badge, Rifle Expert Badge, National Defense Service Medal, American Spirit Honor Medal for High Example to Comrades in Arms; along with numerous laudatory letters of commendation during his service years. He rose to the rank of First Lieutenant. Following his active years with the Marines’ he was a reservist and attended college at University of Texas in Austin. He retired from the Marine Corps Reserve Forces in 1980 as a Captain.

In 1979 Wayne completed his Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology with Highest Honors, University of Texas, Austin, Texas. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Beta Beta Beta and Phi Eta Sigma.

He started his scientific career with a biotechnology company, Genex Laboratories, in their Proteins Department located in the Rockville/Gaithersburg, Maryland area. While at Genex, he was primarily engaged in isolation of Pseudomonads with desirable enzymatic activities, identification of the organism, characterization of the enzymes via kinetics and protein chemistry techniques. Additionally, he would isolate and clone the associated genes. He was on the team of research scientists who discovered Aspartame. Pssst, it grew out from a sample of Texas City, TX dirt/sludge that he collected-ewwww!

In 1982 Wayne returned to Houston, TX to enter the doctoral program, Department of Biochemistry, Baylor College of Medicine. He completed his Ph.D. studies involving Kinetic and Equilibrium Redox Behavior of Fatty Acid Synthetase and Phosphofructokinase. Wayne followed this with a post-doctoral fellowship in Protein Chemistry at Penn State University, State College, Pennsylvania.

Following these academic years, Wayne returned to the biotechnology industry. As Director of the Department of Protein Chemistry and Epitope Research, he directed synthetic epitope research for HIV-I and HIV-II viruses. Applications of various scientific techniques were used to investigate the potential use of PCR for identification and quantitation of HIV variants in human sera as a diagnostic test.

Wayne was strong willed and stubborn at times, but he also had an enormous heart and wonderful sense of humor. He was generous, loyal, and courageous. He was intelligent and full to the brim with knowledge gained through all his life experiences: , gasoline station attendant, oilfield worker, infantry officer in logistics and embarkation officer, bioscientist, researcher, manager, director, clinical and toxicology laboratory director, environmental consultant, business owner, insurance agent/owner; he could fix or build anything he put his mind to. Outside of work, he was a loving father and husband. He enjoyed cooking breakfast for his family, camping and fishing trips, boating, tending to his yard and garden and walks in the woods.

Even in death, Wayne gave of himself as he did in life. As an organ/tissue donor, his spirit lives on with what he donated for others to live.

He is survived by his life partner of 40 years and wife, Lorraine Dong, daughter Sarika Diaz, son-in-law Noel Diaz and son Evan Walters. He will be remembered for all the heart he shared with his friends and family. His canine companions were dear to him. Max and Zeus are on a long walk with him now. He will be missed dearly.

In typical Wayne fashion, there are no services planned, certainly no pomp and circumstance. A celebration of life will occur on Saturday, December 9, 2023, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at American Heritage Funeral Home. Light fare and refreshments will be provided.

Prior to the gathering, please take a moment or two to write down a few thoughts on how Wayne impacted your life or any fond memory you have of him. I will be placing everyone’s remembrances in a keepsake book to cherish. Remembrances may be written down here on his Dignity Memorial Homes page or hard copy delivered at the celebration of life gathering.