Don was born February 15, 1916, in Washington State. He majored in poultry husbandry at the University of California at Berkeley, and earned a degree in nutrition at Colorado State University. After receiving his D.V.M. in 1950, he joined the University of California at Davis Veterinary School and earned a Ph.D. while on staff and faculty.

Dr. Zander’s great contributions to the field came from his experience, but they were especially attributable to his ingenuity and his practicality. In 1951-52, a “new disease” hit California laying flocks and was finally diagnosed as infectious bronchitis. California had no capacity at that time for infectious bronchitis virus neutralization, but it was necessary to determine which flocks were susceptible and which were resistant as a result of an earlier outbreak. Don devised a challenge plan, and with his coworkers devised a practical plan of immunization by “willful infection” in California layers.

In 1955 he returned to Washington State to work for H&N International (Heisdorf & Nelson, Inc.), a poultry breeding firm with international distribution as, Director of Poultry Health Research and Services, a position he held until his retirement in 1989. His assignment was to plan, staff, and direct their new health research laboratory in Woodinville. In addition to diagnosis and care of H&N breeding stock, pioneering research was done on several poultry diseases. Don traveled extensively throughout the free world and helped establish research and diagnostic poultry laboratories in Germany, Brazil, and Japan.

Don was a contributor to the textbook Diseases of Poultry. He was also a life member and past president of both the Western Poultry Disease Conference and the American Association of Avian Pathologists. His work was recognized by several awards such as the Distinguished Service Award from Washington Poultry Industries Association in 1982, Poultry Scientist of the Year from Pacific Egg and Poultry Association in 1988, and the C.A Bottorff Award in 1990 from the American Association of Avian Pathologists.

Don’s was a loving husband to Verna Marie Mace, and caring father to his three children, Linda, David, and Arnold. He adored his grandchildren, Erin, Nathan, Justin, Rebecca, and Donald. He passed away quietly on December 29, 1999. He was modest, had a fine sense of humor, had firm convictions, and was both an inspiration and an incomparable preceptor to literally hundreds of young people all over the world.