- Michael Perich, an LSU professor who helped fight the
spread of the West Nile virus died Saturday morning in a one-vehicle car
accident. He was 46.Walker Police Chief Elton Burns said Sunday that Perich
of 5227 River Bend Blvd., Baton Rouge, crashed his Ford pickup truck about
4:30 a.m. Saturday, while heading west on Interstate 12 in Livingston Parish.
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- Perich's truck veered right off the highway about 3 miles
east of Walker, flipped and landed in rainwater, Burns said.
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- Perich, who was wearing his seat belt, drowned. The cause
of the crash is under investigation, Burns said.
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- Perich, who worked for the U.S. Army for more than 15
years, joined the LSU faculty in August 2001 as an assistant professor
of medical entomology.
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- In addition to West Nile, Perich had also studied malaria
and several other diseases, said Tim Schowalter, head of LSU's entomology
department.
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- "He was one of our stars," Schowalter said.
"He was well known. While he was here, I certainly got to know the
depth and breadth of his character and talent."
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- Perich worked with the East Baton Rouge Parish Mosquito
Control and Rodent Abatement District to determine whether mosquitoes in
the area carried West Nile.
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- He also worked with several other parishes to establish
mosquito-abatement districts, said colleague Jack Baldwin, a professor
of entomology.
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- "He certainly impressed me with his desire and incentive
to do research, teach students and provide answers for the community,"
Baldwin said. "In the short time he was here, he was a leader in mosquito
research."
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- Perich said in an interview with The Advocate in 2002
that his Army career led him to spend seven or eight months every year
traveling the world.
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- He said he had been robbed at gunpoint, shot down while
flying over Africa, ridden through the jungles of countless countries and
suffered through malaria and dengue fever.
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- "He probably does more field work than any entomologist
based in the United States that I know of," Robert A. Wirtz, chief
of entomology at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
has said of Perich.
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- "Mike is one of the few entomologists with the experience
to go out and save lives today."
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- Perich was raised in Nebraska and earned his bachelor's
degree at Iowa State University, where he graduated with three majors:
chemistry, entomology and zoology. He earned his master's and doctorate
from Oklahoma State.
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- From 1986 to 1992, Perich worked at Fort Detrick in Frederick,
Md., as the vector suppression program manager and research medical entomologist.
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- In 1992, he moved to work for the Walter Reed Army Institute
of Research and continued his travels to Southeast Asia, Central and South
America, Korea and Africa. Perich did a lot of work with testing ways to
keep disease-bearing insects, such as mosquitoes, away from people. His
research looked at the use of various area insecticides, personal insect
repellents and traps.
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- Among his other skills, Perich spoke Spanish, Brazilian
Portuguese, French, Russian, Polish, Hungarian and Swahili.
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- He is survived by his wife, Audrey Perich, and daughter
Sarah Perich, both of Baton Rouge, and his mother, Rita Perich, of Omaha,
Neb., among others.
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- Visitation will be at Rabenhorst Funeral Home, 825 Government
St., from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. today. Visitation is at St. Aloysius Catholic
Church, 2025 Stuart Ave., from 11 a.m. until Mass of Christian burial at
1 p.m. Tuesday, celebrated by the Rev. Rich Luberti. A private interment
service will take place at a later date.
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