David Pall, Founder of Pall Corporation, Dies at 90.

Dr. David B. Pall, a chemist who founded the Pall Corporation in 1946 to commercialize his invention of a novel metallic filtration material, died on September 21, 2004, at his home in Roslyn Estates (NY, USA). He was 90.

David Boris Pall was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario (Canada) in April 1914, the son of Russian immigrants. He received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from McGill University (Montreal) in 1939. After that, he moved to New York (NY, USA), where he worked as a research chemist on the Manhattan Project, a secret program resulting in the development of the atomic bomb.

In 1944, Dr. Pall began working in his garage on a metallic filter that would be able to handle heavy pressure, high temperatures, and corrosive materials. He invented many different kinds of filters and received 181 U.S. patents on his designs. Some designs were for filters used aboard airplanes or on helicopter engines. After his first wife, Josephine, died of plastic anemia, he invented filters for purifying blood used in transfusions that have made the procedure much safer by protecting transfused patients from viruses and other harmful pathogens.

Dr. Pall established a company called the Micro Metallic Corp. in East Hills, NY (USA) to distribute his new designs. The name was later changed to the Pall Corporation, which grew into a global company and a world leader in filtration under his tenure. In 1990, Dr. Pall was awarded the U.S. National Medal of Technology, the nation's highest honor in technology. Dr. Pall retired as chairman of Pall Corporation in 1992.