He was also microbiology instructor in the School of Medical Technology and held faculty positions at both University of Dayton and Wright State University.
For the last 11 years he has been the Infection Control Practitioner at the Ohio state University Medical Center.

He held several positions in the early years of SCACM board including Exhibit Chair, Director at Large and Local program chair.

There have been several letters of support for our awardee and would like share with you some of the excerpts from these letters:

From a former employee Dr Carl Hoyng who is now a family practice physician and held position on the board of SCACM during the early years.....
"I will be forever grateful for all Dr. Taylor did for me in my formative years in the clinical laboratory, .......But-but!
I can't drive by road kill without thinking of him.

Dr. Taylor earned his PhD. in Immunology at West Virginia University. At the start of his doctoral program, he approached his major professor with the idea of studying the immunology of marsupials; --thinking that perhaps he could travel to Australia to study kangaroos, etc. To which his major professor replied: "I think your idea is excellent, but we have a marsupial indigenous to WV, the Opossum". So, over the next 3-4 years, whenever our awardee and his lovely bride were out driving at night, there were many stops made roadside to collect another specimen for his doctoral thesis....He has several research articles to his credit dealing with possum immunology and he will forever be linked to the North American Marsupial, the POSSUM... He continues to this day the worlds leading expert in possums and possum immunology."

From Dr Jim Snyder:
"Throughout his career he has dedicated himself to the practice of Medical Microbiology, Infection Control, Education and mentoring of students in medical technology, graduate students, nurses and clinicians. He was one of the first doctorate level individuals in the region to provide technical and medical direction for a non-university based institution. He was one of the early members of SCACM and played an instrumental role in its growth and success.
Although clinical microbiology was his chosen professional field of expertise, he also saw a need for improving and promoting the profession of infection control and prevention. He developed the first formal infection control program at St. E. which influenced the initiation and improvement of similar programs throughout the SCACM region. His reputation as a leading practitioner of infection control led to his involvement at the national level with the Association of Practitioners of Infection Control (APIC).

As one of his former students, he is responsible for providing me with the foundation and principles that are essential to the practice of clinical microbiology including the importance of education, mentoring students and technologists and clinicians."

Pat Kulich ,colleague and APIC board member wrote:
"A little over thirty years ago I attended my first infection control educational program. It was my first week as an infection control practitioner and I was pretty much clueless. The microbiology lecture was presented by Dr. Taylor. His lecture style was light hearted but packed with pertinent information. After his lecture I remember feeling a little more confident about my microbiology knowledge but more importantly knowing I had a resource who would answer any question I had in the future.

Throughout his career he has been a well sought out educator, lecturing at the APIC Basic Training Courses and Certification Preparation Courses and co-authoring the APIC E-learning Module, Laboratory Testing and Infectious Diseases. He has authored chapters in several books, numerous journal publications and presented multiple poster abstracts and numerous educational presentations.

His knowledge of microbiology, epidemiology and his willingness to share makes our jobs much easier. His 'Educational Opportunities', short concise informational letters he sends to our group about the occasional weird bug makes learning fun and gives us necessary information to be able to answer questions with ease."

From Dr Fred Tenover:
Dr. Taylor was my inspiration for my career in Clinical Microbiology and I know of several other clinical microbiologists who also were inspired by the awardee.
I first met him when I was and undergraduate at the University of Dayton. I mentioned to my advisor that I was interested in clinical microbiology. He told me to talk to Dr. Taylor at St E. It so happened that I was hired to be a set-up tech in his lab. Dr. Taylor immediately impressed me. He was knowledgeable about all aspect of the laboratory, enthusiastic, humerous and a terrific teacher. We spoke on a number of occasions about the pros and cons of a career in clinical microbiology and based on his advice and insights I decided on a career in the clinical laboratory. He noted that teaching and research, in addition to lab administration, were the cornerstones of the practice of clinical microbiology. I felt like I received an entire course in clinical microbiology during that summer of working in his lab. He often integrated issues in infection control, public health, and epidemiology into his lectures to med tech students, which I was permitted to attend. It was only later during my years at the CDC that I realized the wisdom of educating med tech students about the impact of microbiology lab practice in these broader, affiliated field of health care.

His career has taken forays into a variety of lab and non lab venues but he has always been a patient teacher and educator and supporter of SCACM, ASM, APIC at the local, regional and national level.

He is a model clinical microbiologist and educator. He has been an inspiration to me and many others over the years; He is the classic unsung hero."

Mike Brandom was proud to award the SCACM Outstanding Clinical Microbiology Award to a gentleman, mentor, colleague, friend - Dr. David Taylor.
According to Mike:
"There is one caveat attached to this award. The committee was given information that there is a video of our awardee dressed up as a women. Apparently an infection control person was complaining that there was a tendency for many in her new employee orientation class on handwashing to fall asleep. Dr. Taylor dressed up like a women and presented the talk via video tape from then on.
If this tape is ever found, gets put on the internet and goes viral, the committee retains the option to resend this award!

On a personal note, I also was one of many who were inspired by our awardee to become a clinical microbiologist after attending his microbiology med tech class and working in his lab. His dedication, knowledge, patience, since of humor, are what many of us can only aspire to."