Richard Floyd Darsie Jr., 99, of Slippery Rock, Plain Grove Township, Lawrence County, passed away at the Orchard Manor Nursing Home in Grove City at 10:08 a.m. Thursday.

He was born in Scottdale, Westmoreland County, on Jan. 28, 1915, to the late Richard Floyd Darsie Sr. and Ellen Helen Colvin Darsie.

Darsie was a U.S. Air Force veteran, serving four years during World War II.

He graduated from Scottdale High School in 1932 and received a bachelor of science degree in 1937 in biology from Bethany College in West Virginia, where he was active in the glee club. He received his master's degree (MS) in zoology from the University of Pittsburgh in 1941 and his Ph.D. in medical entomology from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., in 1949.

He worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Ga., as an entomologist and traveled extensively throughout the world on assignments with the CDC, including to Nepal, the Philippines and Central America.

He married Hilda Odette Asturias on June 17, 1982. She preceded him in death on Oct. 3, 2012.

He was a lifelong tenor singer, mostly in church choirs.

Survivors include his two daughters, Janet B. Darsie and her husband, George Gattoni, of New Orleans, La., and M. Helen Darsie of Pasadena, Calif.; his son, Richard F. Darsie III and his wife, Leslie Jones, of Davis, Calif.; his two grandsons, Brendan G. and Sean M. Darsie, and his four nieces.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Hilda; his first wife, Lucinda “Bonnie” Sherrick, who he married on April 6, 1942; his brother, James C. Darsie, and his sister, Martha Darsie Hope.

Darsie — The family of Richard Floyd Darsie Jr., who passed away Thursday, April 10, 2014, will receive friends at the Smith Funeral Home, 421 New Castle St., Slippery Rock, from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday.Funeral services will be at the funeral home at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday with the Rev. Robert Dayton presiding. Interment will follow at North Plain Grove Cemetery.