Dr. R. Walter Schlesinger, a noted virologist who developed a vaccine for dengue fever with Albert Sabin and was a founding educator of what is now the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, died Jan. 11 in North Falmouth, Mass. He was 89.
Dr. Schlesinger was named professor of microbiology, department chairman and assistant dean of Rutgers Medical School in New Brunswick in 1963, three years before the first students arrived. On his retirement as emeritus professor in 1980, the university trustees voted him the first to receive the formal title of distinguished professor.
Early in his career, Dr. Schlesinger earned international recognition with his research on viral infections of the central nervous system. He concentrated on diseases such as sleeping sickness and dengue fever, a highly painful, debilitating tropical disease transmitted by mosquitoes.
He began this work in 1940 as a researcher in bacteriology and pathology at the Rockefeller Institute. Called to serve in the Army Medical Corps in the Pacific, he met Sabin, a former institute staff member, in a unit assigned to study viral diseases.
He collaborated with Sabin in finding a vaccine for dengue fever, which was striking American fighting men. He also joined Sabin in developing a vaccine against the Japanese encephalitis virus, immunizing American troops who were preparing to invade Japan.
Dr. Schlesinger later researched influenza viruses and their neurological complications. He produced more than 100 scientific papers, including some written with Sabin, and was on various committees and task forces for the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society.
