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David was the son of late Frank and Marion Hue of St. Johns, Newfoundland. He is survived by his loving wife Patricia Bray-Ward; children Tanya (Chris), Sarah (Andy), Nick (Nabila); grandchildren Mackenzie and Zachary; his best friend Lou Fink; many other friends, and scientific collaborators.
David grew up in St. Johns, Newfoundland, where he excelled at baseball, hockey, science, and chocolate-cake-eating. He received his Ph.D. degree from Rockefeller University in 1969 and was a Leukemia Society of America Fellow 1969-1971 at Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London. He joined the Yale faculty in 1971. He was internationally recognized for development of Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization, known as 'Fish' (named after Dave's love of fishing). This is a laboratory method that uses the substitution of fluorescence light emission, rather than radioactivity for detection in biomedical research, resulting in much more rapid knowledge acquisition and much less stress from avoidance of the need to protect against potential radiation damage to the researchers.
Dave met his wife, Patricia, through a collaborative research project on the sequencing of chromosome 12. He was an author on 275 research papers during his academic years at Yale University School of Medicine, was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and served as Deputy Director of the Nevada Cancer Institute, and Associate Director at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center.
A memorial service will be held April 28, 2023,
at the Presbyterian Church of the Siuslaw, Florence, Oregon.
