David Allan Schooley
April 17, 1943-June 26, 2025
Palo Alto, California
David Schooley, age 82, died suddenly but peacefully at Stanford Hospital, surrounded by his family.
He was born to Gertrude and Elmer Schooley in Denver, CO, but grew up in Las Vegas, NM, a small town in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Summers were spent at the family ranch in Westcliffe, Colorado, which cemented his love of the Colorado lands. He will be buried in the family plot in Westcliffe.
He attended New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas. In 1968, he graduated from Stanford University with a doctorate in Organic Chemistry, studying under Dr. Carl Djerassi, one of the inventors of “the pill.” That same year David met and married his wife Eleanor and they set off on three years of post doctoral studies, first at the University of Florida at Gainesville, where they welcomed a daughter, Christine. They then spent two years at Columbia University, where he studied under Dr. Koji Nakanishi, a bioorganic and natural products professor.
In 1971, he joined Zoecon Corporation, in Palo Alto, which was developing methoprine, a product so safe it could be added to water in malaria-prone countries and is used to limit the spread of West Nile Virus. David led the biochemistry group which conducted basic research on insect hormones. They identified 4 of the 6 known insect juvenile hormones and how these hormones were synthesized, and also 4 peptide hormones which control life processes in insects. While an industrial chemist, David was recognized as being one of a few industrial scientists supported for 14 years by grants from the National Science Foundation. He had the foresight to take a sabbatical with Nobel Laureate Dr. Roger Guillemin’s lab to learn macromolecular peptide science.
During these years, David and Eleanor welcomed a son, Stephen, and a daughter, Anna.
In 1988, David joined the faculty of the Biochemistry Department at the University of Nevada-Reno and taught the popular class of metabolic regulation, important to upper division and pre-med students. The majority of his research was focused on insect diuretic hormones, and towards the later part of his career he became interested in water and salinity stress in grapevines. He especially enjoyed working with students and his academic colleagues. David had almost 200 publications and more than 11,000 were cited from leaders in his field.
Beyond science he was an assistant leader with Stephen’s Boy Scout Troop, and led a group of scouts to the High Adventure Camp, Philmont, in Northern New Mexico. He was a fierce skier, an ardent Giants fan and a wine enthusiast. He also had a wicked sense of humor.
David is survived by his wife, Eleanor; children, Christine (Walter Stokes), Stephen, Anna Farley (Thomas Farley); grandchildren, Ryan, Peter, Julia, Henri, Raphi, Caleb, Bodie; and his brother, Theodore Schooley of Rosewell, New Mexico.
Tags: teacher/educator
