Donald Frederick Bacon (6 April 1926 – 28 August 2020) was a New Zealand microbiologist.

In 1966, he was appointed the inaugural professor of microbiology at Massey University, where he remained until his retirement in 1989.

[1][2][3] He was educated at Gisborne High School, and in 1944 began training as a medical laboratory technician at Cook Hospital.

[1] Assisted by a Fulbright Scholarship, Bacon undertook doctoral studies at Yale University in the United States, completing his PhD in 1958.

[1][5] While at Yale, Bacon met his future wife, Flo Thanassi, a research assistant at the university; they became engaged in 1957 and later married.