James (Jim) David Macmillan, 91, professor emeritus of Rutgers University died peacefully on April 5, 2022 at his home in Manchester, NJ.
Macmillan served on the Rutgers faculty for over 30 years, leaving a lasting impact on the field of microbiology and on the students and faculty with whom he worked alongside. He was born in Billings, Montana in 1931. He served in the Montana National Guard beginning in 1949, later to become a first lieutenant with the U.S. Army Infantry serving in postwar Korea from 1953 to 1954. He continued his military service as a Captain in the US Army Reserves from 1954 through 1963.
Macmillan attended Montana State College in Bozeman Montana, earning a BS in Bacteriology in 1952 and a MS in Bacteriology in 1956. He continued graduate work at UC Davis, earning his doctorate in microbiology in 1963, and post-doctoral research as a National Institutes of Health post- doctoral fellow. Macmillan then joined the faculty of the College of Agriculture (later Cook College and now the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences) at Rutgers University in 1965 as an assistant professor of microbiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology. He was promoted to professor in 1971 and served as chair of the Department from 1969 to 1979. He taught graduate and undergraduate classes in microbiology, such as the course Applied Microbiology, and his research focused primarily on enzymes, toxins, and antibodies.
Macmillan retired from Rutgers in 1997, leaving a lasting impact on the field of microbiology and on the students and faculty with whom he worked alongside. That same year he was appointed to the position of professor emeritus in recognition of his long and distinguished service to the university. He was incredibly proud of his graduate students, mostly doctoral students, who are now scattered throughout the country as scientists at various companies, universities, and government agencies. In 2011, Macmillan was honored by one such student, Dennis Fenton and his wife Linda Fenton, who gifted a graduate Fellowship in his honor. The James Macmillan Endowed Fellowship in Microbiology at Rutgers University is a standing reminder of his commitment to the University and the students he mentored.
