Walter Stamm, UW professor, scientist, author, dies at age 64

Dr. Walter Stamm, a University of Washington professor and scientist whose groundbreaking work helped change the way many infectious and sexually transmitted diseases are detected and treated, died Thursday after a yearlong struggle with skin cancer. He was 64.

The head of the Division of Allergy and Infectious Disease at UW from 1994 to 2007, Dr. Stamm helped make the division one of the nation's top infectious-disease research centers. The faculty grew from 25 to 75 under his helm.

He made major contributions to the field of urinary-tract, nosocomial (hospital-acquired) and sexually transmitted infections, UW officials said.

Dr. Stamm was born on Feb. 4, 1945, in Philadelphia. He received a biological-sciences degree from Stanford University and then graduated from Harvard Medical School before completing his residency at UW.

In 1973, he worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and was promoted to branch chief a year later. Dr. Stamm returned to UW in 1976 to research urinary tract and chlamydial infections.

Among his many achievements, Dr. Stamm changed the way chlamydia is detected. He also developed a therapy with antibiotics to cure upper-tract infections in two rather than six weeks.

Dr. Stamm developed new standards of care and therapies that "revolutionized" the fields of "urinary tract, sexually transmitted and nosocomial infections," said Lawrence Corey, head of the Program in Infectious Diseases at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

His advances in diagnosing and treating upper-tract infections and sexually transmitted diseases "have remained the standard of care for physicians throughout the world, even now, 25 years later," Corey said.

He authored 11 textbooks and more than 350 research papers, and was one of the founding editors of the textbook "Sexually Transmitted Diseases."

Dr. Stamm also was the former associate editor of the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

He was an accomplished skier and tennis player, a Renaissance man, "a brilliant man with a calm and kind demeanor and a sharp, dry wit," said his daughter Hillary Stamm of Los Angeles. "He was a pioneer in his field, but he was very dedicated to his family."

He also is survived by daughter Lindsay, of Portland, and a son, Andrew, of Seattle.

Tan Vinh: 206-515-5656 or tvinh@seattletimes.com