Dr. Elmo Dooley

Elmo Sharber Dooley was born 23 February 1924 in the coal-mining community of Wilder-Davidson in Fentress Co.,Tn. to Brooks L. (Sr.) and Katherine Forgey Dooley. He passed away 2 July 2014 at his home in Cookeville, TN. He began his military service in the US Army Air Corp during WWII and retired from the US Air Force Reserves as a Colonel after 43 years of active and reserve service to his country. After earning a BS degree from Tennessee Tech and an MS and PhD from the University of Tennessee, he was a professor in the Biology Dept. at TTU for 27 years, retiring in 1986. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Health. Between his active duty military service and his tenure as a professor, he was Chief of the Microbiology Branch of the US Army Medical Research Laboratory, Chief Microbiologist of the US Air Force Aerospace Medical Laboratory, and an Intelligence Analyst for the US Air Force Foreign Technology Division. He also worked in the space program at NASA, where he loaded into their life support capsule Able and Baker, the first monkeys to be launched into space. He was preceded in death by his wife, Betty Jenkins Dooley, after 64 years of marriage. He is survived by three sons and their wives, Joe and Betty; Walter and Marilyn; Bryan and Kimela; two grandsons Jason and Brent and wife Jessie; four granddaughters, Kayla and husband Chris, Annie, Megan, Leslie and husband Judd; two great-grandchildren, Lily and Henry. Memorial services will be held in the chapel of Dyer Funeral Home at 10:00 am, Saturday, August 16, 2014, with receiving of friends 9:00-10:00 am. Dr. Dooley requested in lieu of flowers that memorial donations be made to the Collegeside Church of Christ Senior Adult Class.