Clear, 68° F
(October 19, 2002)
Former Powell resident Oliver H. Perry Mikesell, IV died Saturday, Oct. 19 at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, at the age of 54.
Born in Laramie, he attended Powell High School and was a graduate of the University of Wyoming with a B.S. degree in 1971 and a M.S. degree in 1973. He then attended Oregon Health Science University in Portland.
A retired U.S. Army major, most of his military career was spent at Fort Detrick, Md., at the United States Army Medical Institute of Infectious Diseases as a research scientist. In 1983, he was named Army Scientist of the Year for his work on Louis Pasteur's strain of bacillus anthracis. He was the first to discover and sequence the DNA of the deadly toxins in the bacteria, thus leading to possible viable vaccine in the future.
After his retirement from the military, he worked at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, as a research scientist in the National Defense and Security Division.
He is survived by his wife, Phyllis Mikesell; two sons, Oliver H. P. "Mike" Mikesell, V of Lena, Ill., and Joseph C. Mikesell of Dublin, Ohio; one daughter, Victoria M. Mikesell of Columbus, Ohio; two grandchildren, Mitchell Perry Mikesell and Sidney P. Mikesell-Tackett.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Oliver H. Perry "Mike" Mikesell and Carol J. Mikesell; and one brother, Patrick Mikesell.
