CORNELL Veterinary Medicine SPRING 2004
PRINCIPLES A FEW PAGES FROM THE BOOK IN PRACTICE OF ROBERT W. KIRK
SPRING 2004 PRINCIPLES
contents
9 Don’t Forget the Horse Doctor
10 A Case of Mistaken Memory
15 Auxiliary
18 Torres Testifies
18 CVM People
24 Endnote
Dede Hatch IN PRACTICE
CORNELL VETERINARY MEDICINE Robert W. Kirk, DVM ’46 was out ager with a love of the outdoors. His standing in a field — a potato field, to work on a nearby Guernsey farm in- be exact — when Dean William Hagan spired him to major in dairy and ani- called in 1952 to invite him to inter- mal husbandry at the University of view for a position at Cornell. Hadley Connecticut, and he graduated with Stephenson, DVM ’20 was retiring from high distinction. The student’s interest the Small Animal Clinic, and Ellis in cattle was serious enough that he won Leonard, DVM ’34 needed to replace the beef-cattle category of the judging him. Kirk had also been offered a posi- competition at the 1941 International tion in the recently established veteri- Livestock Show. That summer he nary college at the University of A FEW PAGES worked on another dairy farm, Judd’s California, Davis, but he opted for the Bridge. While there, he first glimpsed known quantity. his future — or thought he had. The “quantity”, he knew, would not from the Judd’s Bridge Farm was home to the be much. “Bob Kirk and E. P. Leonard top Brown Swiss herd in the world. were the faculty in small animals, let’s When a daughter of the most famous face it,” says Mark Morris, Jr., DVM ’58. Brown Swiss of all, Jane of Vernon, de- From such an unpromising start book of veloped hydrops amnii of the uterus, of grew one of the most prolific careers course the top veterinarian in the re- ever seen in veterinary clinical practice. gion was called in to save her. “They Kirk would do as much as anyone of any ROBERT W. K IRK invited Myron Fincher [DVM ’20], this generation before or since to elevate the very famous veterinarian from Cornell, standards of small-animal practice, not to come down and try to solve this cow’s only at Cornell, but throughout the pro- problem and get a live calf out of her,” fession. remembers Kirk. “He spent almost the Dean Hagan had tracked Kirk whole day on the farm, and I was one down, or up, in Presque Isle, Maine, of the lucky guys who was assigned to where he was finishing his tour of duty help him. I was totally impressed by in the U.S. Air Force Veterinary Corps. what he could do and what he showed Captain Kirk was picking potatoes be- me.” Fincher encouraged the young cause the farmers neighboring the base man to apply to Cornell. “I came to were short of labor, and he thought he’d Cornell as a cattleman,” says Kirk, en- go help. Bob Kirk is like that. He has joying the irony. spent his whole life working as hard as Before he could go to veterinary he can to be as helpful as he knows how college, Kirk had to join the Army, the to be. year being 1943. Fortune continued to Born and raised in Stamford, Con- smile on him, however. “Strangely necticut as the older child of a Depres- enough, the service sent me to Cornell,” sion-era banker, Kirk has all the Yankee he says, and, like many in his class, he virtues: enterprise, thrift, ingenuity, entered through the Army Specialized fairness, honesty, simplicity, charity, dig- Training Program. “After I got here,” nity, humility, stoicism, and a formi- he continues, “I got to see what was dable work ethic. An Eagle Scout with possible with small animals. I sort of three palms, he was an industrious teen- shifted gears.” He decided to enter
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SPRING 2004 1 mixed practice after graduation and looking at packing houses and herds and DVM ’26 of Summit, New Jersey to went to work for David Hopkins, DVM dairies,” and got promoted to captain. head the Department of Therapeutics ’30 in Brattleboro, Vermont. Kirk the assistant professor arrived and the Small Animal Clinic, and he “That was a tremendous experi- at Cornell in 1952, a pivotal time for arrived determined to turn things ence,” says Kirk. “He was a practitioner small-animal medicine. Cornell’s Vet- around. “Before E. P. Leonard, Cornell who believed in service, and I learned erinary Virus Research Institute, di- was way behind the times in small-ani- how important it was to support rected by the brilliant virologist and mal veterinary medicine,” asserts people.” But the young practitioner also bacteriologist James A. Baker, DVM George Abbott, DVM ’45, who gradu- realized how much more work there was ’40, PhD ’40, was just introducing the ated from veterinary college six months to be done for small animals. After a first major vaccine — for canine infec- before Kirk. “When I graduated, when year or so in Vermont, he took a staff tious hepatitis — to be developed for Bob graduated, we were all quite profi- position at the ASPCA Hospital in dogs since the rabies vaccine. Baker and cient in large-animal medicine. Small- New York City. “I spent a year and a his associates, who in the earliest years animal was another story,” Abbott half there doing nothing but surgery, included future professor and dean continues. “Like most veterinary col- five or six hours a day,” he recalls. “It George Poppensiek and future profes- leges, we were still using ether, a highly was a real production-line thing. Many of the cases that a solo practitioner would see once or twice a year I’d see once or twice a month. I got a lot of experience.” Kirk wanted to take that experi- ence back into general practice, and he asked his good friend Harmon Leonard, DVM ’44, who was practicing in Che- shire, Connecticut, if he knew anyone who was hiring. Leonard pointed him ten miles down the road to the Ken- sington practice of John P. McIntosh, DVM ’28. McIntosh gave him a job. Kirk remembers the next two years as happy ones, even though they in- cluded frequent trips home and to the hospital to visit his dying mother. On one such trip he encountered a nurse named Helen Grandish on the sidewalk Helen and Bob Kirk, photographed at his retirement party in 1985. outside the hospital. The young veteri- narian remembered her as a woman he had met at a beach party the year be- fore. He proposed that they go horse- sor and department chairman James dangerous anesthetic that goes way back back riding. “And from then on we Gillespie, were also doing definitive to rudimentary veterinary medicine. E. dated a lot,” he says. His mother lived work on canine distemper and other P. Leonard came up here and instituted long enough to see them marry. viruses that would give practitioners the sterile surgery and improved anesthe- Happy though he was in general first effective means to protect their sia, and he revamped and upgraded the practice, Kirk felt the burden of some canine patients from the serious infec- whole small-animal curriculum.” unfinished business. “I began to feel that tious diseases of the time. “Leonard ran the hospital like a I had not done as much for the United In contrast, small-animal clinical very good practice,” recalls Kirk. “He States Government as I should have,” medicine had historically been down- wanted to make it pay. He raised the he explains. “They had sent me to played at Cornell, as it had been at most prices enough that he could hire tech- school for a year, so I volunteered and veterinary colleges, because tradition nical staff and interns, which we had enlisted in the Air Force as a first lieu- and the marketplace favored large-ani- never had before. He built the program tenant.” And so he came to be based in mal medicine. In 1948 Ellis Leonard on that. Shortly after I came there were Presque Isle, where he spent two years had been recruited from private prac- Leonard and myself and two interns — “jiggering around the state of Maine, tice in association with Joseph Engle, we didn’t have residents in those days.
2 CORNELL VETERINARY MEDICINE Kirk and his mentor, Dr. E. P. Leonard. Leonard introduced sterile technique to academic veterinary medicine and upgraded Cornell’s small-animal curriculum.
Leonard was very anxious to get in to the scientific presentations he made volume Textbook of Veterinary Internal people who were high-quality — smart, at major meetings. Medicine: Diseases of the Dog and Cat, hard workers.” Leonard’s influence and the six was intending to pursue a research ca- “E. P. Leonard was relatively strict years of real-world veterinary experi- reer in comparative medicine when he and tough,” says Abbott, “but Bob ence that Bob Kirk brought to Cornell entered Kirk’s classroom for the first picked it all up and went into the small- shaped his entire approach to teaching. time. He walked out with a completely animal department with that approach. “The most important thing that Kirk different focus: “One hour in his class They completely changed small-animal did,” says Abbott, a retired practitioner convinced me that I should become a veterinary medicine in a matter of a very and lifelong friend who often returned small-animal veterinarian, and the en- few years, and gained preeminence.” to watch him teach, “was to instill an tire direction of my career has been “Leonard was a practitioner at heart appreciation of outside medicine in stu- based on the excitement, enthusiasm, and had the practitioners’ needs at dents while they were still in school. He and verve of having him as a teacher. heart, which certainly rubbed off on told them the situations they were go- He displayed all the characteristics of a me,” reflects Kirk. “So our emphasis was ing to face and the compromises they fine teacher, a fine practitioner, and a to try to help the people in the field.” were going to have to make.” fine human being.” Soon he was sharing what he had Mark Morris, Jr., the developer of Kirk’s range as a teacher and clini- learned about small-animal medicine Hill’s Science Diet® and other animal- cian was by all accounts fantastic.“In with veterinary groups throughout the nutrition products and another of Kirk’s those days there was no such thing as nation and around the world. He was close friends, had his first contact with oncology, cardiology, neurology... Bob keen to spread the word about the vac- the young professor as a third-year stu- was medicine,” says Cornell neurology cine work being done at Baker’s insti- dent in a course called Pharmacology and and neuroanatomy professor Alexander tute on Snyder Hill. “I piggybacked a Therapeutics. “Because of his prior prac- de Lahunta, who graduated with Mor- lot on the things that they did in the tice experience, we got an extremely ris in 1958. “He taught the entire phar- talks that I gave,” says Kirk. “I would beneficial course in small-animal medi- macology that we took in veterinary try to explain the things that they’d cine,” recalls Morris. “It ended up be- college; he taught all of small-animal done, and how important all those new ing for many of us one of the most useful medicine, every system,” he says vaccines were. I’ve always been very and educational courses that we took admiringly. “He’s an excellent teacher, grateful for those guys up at the Baker in veterinary school.” and he taught right from his experience, Institute and their great cooperation.” Stephen Ettinger, DVM ’64, a fore- including what he had just seen down- In 30 years of active public speaking, most small-animal cardiologist and in- stairs in the clinic.” Kirk delivered approximately 400 con- ternist who is currently preparing the Michael Lorenz, professor and in- tinuing-education lectures in addition sixth edition of his authoritative two- terim dean at Oklahoma State
SPRING 2004 3 Sol Goldberg
University’s College of Veterinary Kirk was just the opposite, very outgo- Medicine, met Kirk as an intern in ing, and would encourage questions, 1969. He writes, “Dr. Kirk was one of and really interacted with the students the best diagnosticians I have worked in a very congenial way.” with in my career. He was a magician As a boss, Kirk inspired respect and at symptomatic therapy of dermatologi- devotion. “As an intern, resident, and cal diseases and light years ahead of graduate student,” remembers Ronald most everyone else in this discipline. I Riis, a professor of ophthalmology who left Cornell with a tremendous back- came to Cornell in 1971, “I knew Bob ground in internal medicine, dermatol- as the almighty last say in how this place ogy, and neurology. I am amazed how was going to be run, how this place know where he found the time.” much I remember about my three years would look, and the reputation it would Kirk, though, remembers the ad- at Cornell. Strong mentors make last- have. You didn’t want to do anything ministrator who taught him the value ing impressions. Suffice it to say that I that would make Dr. Kirk feel like you of personal attention. “Hagan as the consider Dr. Kirk to be among a select didn’t understand what he wanted. He dean was tremendous. As a boss, he was few academicians who brought small- expected you to know what was sup- outstanding. One of the things I really animal medicine into the twentieth posed to be done, he expected you to remember very well and treasure was, century.” pull your own, and he expected you to you’d be operating — and in those days, Professor Kirk was also considerably share with others. It was impressed in you know, there were no gloves and more approachable than his faculty el- everybody’s mind that this was an in- masks; it was a little crude — and some- ders. De Lahunta, who is himself one of stitution that was going to keep going body would come put his hand on your the greats of veterinary medicine, wipes forward.” shoulder, and Hagan’s head would ap- tears of laughter as he fondly remem- Dermatology professor Danny pear. He’d say, ‘How are you doing this bers the dour faces on some of the great Scott, who was trained by Kirk and later morning, Bob?’ and then he’d disappear. academics of the time: “Some people shared a clinical service with him, re- And you knew that the boss knew you were very straightlaced, like Leonard, members him as a man who always had were alive, and that was wonderful. or P. P. Levine in poultry — fantastic time to give attention to his staff. “He Although he was a hard man and lecturer! His lectures were so good, so might not be on service; he might have wanted things done right, he got a lot precise, and so organized, and you a full plate of administrative stuff; but of cooperation from his groups, I learned so much microbiology. But oh, it seemed like almost every day he would thought. He did from me.” you talk about straightlaced! You didn’t be walking through the clinic and mak- Although gentler in his approach ask him a question. Pete Olafson was ing personal contact with every faculty than Hagan, Kirk nonetheless expected sort of the same way. Pete Olafson had member. He really cared about the qual- a high degree of professionalism from a heart of gold, but on the outside it was ity of the work environment; he really his clinicians, including students. In crushed stone! And then we had cared about each individual and how addition to shouldering their responsi- “Smilin’ Bob” Habel, who ultimately we all got along. There’s never been an bilities and cooperating with their col- was one of my mentors. Fantastic guy, administrator here at any level that I’m leagues, he expected them to dress in a but he never cracked a smile. But Bob aware of that gave that much. I don’t manner he deemed professional. “I was
4 CORNELL VETERINARY MEDICINE pretty hard on students,” admits Kirk. nicating the pride that he had in his pro- an ice-cream salesman, but I continued “Everybody had to wear a necktie and fession, and a way of teaching us to be to wear the white shirt, tie, white coat, be well groomed.” Kirk himself favored professional people. That has stuck with white pants, and white shoes for many a bow tie and a crewcut. “They used to me all of my life, and I have always worn years. I even gave the bow tie a try for a have competitions for Rotten Tie Day a coat and tie whenever I’ve made a while, but it clashed with my big ears.” on Friday when they had the senior presentation to a professional group, More seriously, he adds, “I still wear a seminars. I won for weeks without because of what I learned from him.” long white coat when I lecture and con- knowing I was even entered.” Lorenz braved the wit of his col- sult on neurology cases in our hospital. Despite the humor it inspired, leagues for several years (very capably, I wear it out of respect for my teachers Kirk’s dress code delivered a powerful to be sure) after carrying the Kirk stan- and my profession, and to honor Dr. and effective message. Says Morris, dard home to the South. “At Georgia,” Kirk.” “That was really important in commu- he writes, “I was teased for looking like Danny Scott arrived at Cornell in the same intern class as Ron Riis. “When I got here,” he relates, “Bob was director of the Small Animal Clinic, head of the Department of Small Ani- mal Medicine and Surgery, and a ser- vice chief in small-animal medicine. There were two faculty people in medi- cine, two faculty people in surgery, a surgery resident, a medicine resident, an ophthalmologist, an ophthalmology resident, and four interns. That was the entire Small Animal Clinic. I look back on that decade or so from 1971 on as the golden years insofar as most of us were just getting our start, aside from Bob Kirk. In terms of small-animal medicine and surgery, we were kind of the ‘Avis’ of veterinary schools, second or third or fourth or twentieth, what- ever we were. We were trying awfully hard with no names, the No-Name Defense.” But Kirk was, in fact, beginning to make a very big name for himself and Cornell. “Bob was on the cutting edge of change,” says Riis, “of modern vet- erinary medicine the way we see it now. He embraced it.” By the close of the 1960s, Kirk had produced Small Animal Dermatology in collaboration with George Muller, Hand- book of Veterinary Procedures and Emer- gency Treatment with Stephen Bistner, and the first three editions of Current Veterinary Therapy, a ground-breaking series that is currently in its fifteenth edition under new editors. Kirk was sole editor of the first ten volumes and col- laborated with John B. Bonagura on Volume XI. Each edition was a new
C. Hadley Smith Hadley C. book rather than a revision; Kirk be-
Kirk in 1954, teaching veterinary wives how to assist their husbands in practice.
SPRING 2004 5 lieved that it had to be in order to jus- teresting experience, because the other tify its title. The series has sold nearly people on the board were Wall Street 300,000 copies to date, which may be a bankers and attorneys and all kinds of record in veterinary publishing. people who were big in business. I think As the sales figures and the num- they liked having me on the board be- bers of revised and translated editions cause I had experience with dogs and attest, Kirk’s books filled a great, unmet animals, but I also wasn’t afraid to tell need among the practicing community them where the bear got in the buck- for specialized information. In order to wheat.” As a member of their building become specialized himself in dermatol- committee, Kirk helped oversee con- ogy, he had taken a sabbatical leave to struction of two dog facilities and a $5 train as a National Science Foundation million veterinary hospital. As a monu- fellow with the physician dermatologists ment to his hard work and unerring at Stanford University’s School of good sense, the Seeing Eye dedicated Medicine. On an earlier sabbatic funded the Robert W. Kirk Canine Health Li- by Morris Animal Foundation, he had brary in 1997. sought experience with renal diseases “To me,” says Danny Scott, “to this and with hemodialysis and ultrasound day, I don’t know how one person ac- — very new technologies in 1960 — at complished all of that and accomplished Kirk (above, in 1962) was a the University of Colorado School of it well, not only with expertise, but with stickler for professional dress. Medicine. The need for specialty train- graciousness and joy and integrity. From He expected his clinicians and ing in veterinary medicine seemed ob- editing the books to working in the clin- vious to him, so he did something about ics to speaking around the world, he lit- students to wear a necktie and it. He became instrumental in the for- erally knew more, I believe, than any be well groomed. Kirk himself mation and governance of several spe- small-animal veterinarian in the world.” favored a bow tie and a crewcut. cialty boards within the American Kirk formed deep and lasting con- “They used to have competitions Veterinary Medical Association. nections with many people. (He still for Rotten Tie Day on Friday Kirk began by forming the Ameri- exchanges Christmas greetings with his when they had the senior semi- can College of Veterinary Internal long-ago boss, “Doc” McIntosh, who is Medicine with a group of other leading closing in on 100 years of age.) “He nars. I won for weeks without practitioners in 1970. He went on to doesn’t just meet people and drop knowing I was even entered.” serve that organization in various posts, them,” observes Harmon Leonard. “He including the presidency and the chair- follows up on their friendship. When I manship of its board of regents. In 1988 think about Bob, I just overflow with the ACVIM recognized his contribu- enthusiasm and respect for him, and tions by making him the first recipient admiration. I don’t know of a truer of an award created in his honor, the friend you can have than Bob Kirk. If Robert W. Kirk Distinguished Service he thought you were wrong on some is- Award. sue, he’d tell you so. Bob is just one of Ten years later he became a found- the most straightforward, honest indi- ing diplomate of the American College viduals that I’ve ever known. I’ve al- of Veterinary Dermatology, an organi- ways treasured our friendship.” zation he served as secretary/treasurer “I admired the fact that he was so and president. Two years after that he deeply academic,” says Riis, “but so un- helped found the American Board of commonly calm, and so common. Sure, Veterinary Practitioners, which he also he could tell you about any disease; he served in a variety of offices including had the scope of the whole field of president. small-animal practice. But on the other Concurrent with his efforts in hand, it wasn’t beneath him to sit and founding these organizations, Kirk chat with you. It was never his desire to served two terms on the AVMA’s Coun- be thought of as better than everybody cil on Education. He also became in- else. You could tell him anything you volved in 1970 with the Seeing Eye wanted to, and if he knew it shouldn’t Foundation, on whose board he served go anywhere, it didn’t. That’s exactly for 21 years. “That’s something I was the way it was.” quite proud of,” he says. “It was an in- For Scott, Kirk was “the single
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6 CORNELL VETERINARY MEDICINE greatest teacher that I ever had in vet- be forever linked to Kirk through the In a culture where it is not unusual erinary medicine, the single greatest Gentle Doctor Award, which is given for emeritus professors to keep coming role model for being not only a veteri- each year to a fourth-year veterinary to the office for a good 10 or 20 more narian but a good person, and my fa- student who exemplifies dedication to years, this most prolific author, tireless ther figure, my dad-away-from-home for the delivery of excellent veterinary pa- world traveler, progressive clinician, years and years and years.” tient care. Hornbuckle created the committed administrator, engaging Morris, who had a stellar profes- award in 1979 by donating his prize teacher, and visionary organizer sur- sional role model in Mark Morris, Sr., money from the Norden Distinguished prised nearly everyone when he retired. DVM ’26, still says of Kirk, “Except for Teacher Award. Bob and Helen Kirk He left. Kirk went home. my own father, he has been my father showed their support for Hornbuckle’s He comes back to visit, but not of- in veterinary medicine. He’s the man I idea and ideals by contributing the ten. The offhand explanation he gives have most tried to emulate in my pro- funds to endow the award permanently. is that he has not wanted to be the sort fessional career.” The senior Morris, a It was, is, and always will be for of old-timer who stops busy people in pioneer of enlightened small-animal Hornbuckle a very special honor. their tracks to talk. While it is very dif- practice, started the specialty of veteri- Kirk himself has received many ficult to imagine Kirk wasting anyone’s nary clinical nutrition with his devel- honors in his career. In addition to the time, it is true that he has no desire to opment of Prescription Diets, a brand ACVIM’s Kirk Award and the naming stand in the way of progress, whether manufactured by Hill’s Pet Nutrition, of the Seeing Eye’s Robert W. Kirk Ca- on an individual or an institutional Inc. nine Health Library, he is especially scale. More importantly, though, he rec- Professor William Hornbuckle, proud of his election to honorary asso- ognized when he retired that he had head of the community practice service ciate membership in the Royal College already done two or three ordinary life- in Cornell’s Companion Animal Hos- of Veterinary Surgeons (as the only times’ worth of work and had lost fam- pital, works every day under the portrait American at the time to hold that dis- ily time in the process. His “day job” of Kirk that he had hung alongside tinction), and his selection as the sec- aside, he notes that he and his wife, Leonard’s in the treatment pod where ond recipient of the Mark L. Morris, Sr. Helen, who handled many of the pro- he teaches students how to practice in Lifetime Achievement Award. duction tasks, put many thousands of the real world. “Kirk was the veterinar- In 1985, at age 63, Kirk decided to hours into producing the eleven vol- ian in the profession when I was enter- step off the fast track. “I remember go- umes of Current Veterinary Therapy plus ing it. He’s the veterinarian I always ing to his retirement party,” says all the editions of his other books. He wanted to be, although not at his level Hornbuckle. “Man, every veterinarian of national prominence. I just wanted in the country seemed like they showed to be as good as he was... He’s probably up for that.” the greatest influence in my life.” Hornbuckle is particularly proud to
Kirk traveled the world fishing with his friends. Above, in Quebec: BACK ROW, L. TO R.: Bo Jackson, Bud Wright, Mark Jackson, George Abbott. FRONT ROW: Bob Kirk, Warren Parker.
SPRING 2004 7 traveled a lot, taking his wife when he the board. After moving into Kendal at great dedication and skill for many years could, but often leaving her behind to Ithaca, a local retirement community, as a way to enjoy the outdoors with his raise their three daughters. His clinic he joined their board of trustees. He was friends. “I fished with him many, many and teaching duties placed heavy de- also appointed by the state governor to times,” says Harmon Leonard, “up in mands on his time, particularly when a six-year term on the New York State Alaska and Canada, and in New his daughters were young, and he regrets Life Care Communities Council, which Zealand; he’s been out at the ranch fish- the time that he didn’t spend with oversees and regulates all the retirement ing with me in Colorado many times.” them. “I was a workaholic, and I think communities in the state. And Kendal He and Ron Riis used to go deer hunt- ing every November. “Without a doubt, Bob would always get his deer right off the bat, be- cause he was a very good shot,” remembers Riis. George Abbott, who looks like he has told a few fish stories in his life, gives this poker-faced assess- ment: “He took fishing seri- ously, and he was a good fisherman... fairly good. Not as good as I am. He was a bird hunter, within reason — not near as good as I am, but he was a bird hunter.” Un- prompted, Kirk says of Abbott: “He’s a super fisherman. Not too good a hunter yet. He’s great with birds, but he doesn’t know much about deer, and you can tell him I said that.” What are friends for? “There were a half dozen of us who traveled all over the world, fishing,” says Kirk. Dede Hatch “We’ve been to Australia, New Kirk pitched the idea of starting a woodworking shop at his retirement community and helped Zealand. We went to Norway equip it with his own power tools. Now he assists some of his fellow residents with their wood- one time for ten days and no- working projects.“If you don’t get involved in things, you miss half the fun.” body caught a single fish. No- body had a single strike, even, but everyone had a wonderful time.” Kirk adds that he and that’s terrible. I think your family should now has an expansive, superbly his wife traveled together as much as come first, or the Lord first, and that equipped woodworking shop in the possible when he had meetings to at- will keep the other things in perspec- basement. That was Kirk’s doing, of tend. Together they visited Spain, En- tive. It’s very difficult to achieve bal- course, and many of the power tools gland, France, Norway, Luxembourg, ance in one’s life, but I think it’s very came out of his own basement. Now he Holland, South America, South Africa, important to do. Work hard at your job, assists some of his fellow residents with Austria, India, Yugoslavia, Greece, Ice- but it shouldn’t be the first thing in the their woodworking projects. “You see land, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Aus- world.” something that needs to be done and tralia, and Japan. Bob Kirk is a deeply devout Chris- you do it,” he explains as though this It is not surprising, then, that travel tian, and he and his wife were very ac- was really simple. “If you don’t get in- becomes Kirk’s metaphor for everything tive in their church for decades. It could volved in things, you miss half the fun.” he has seen and done in his extraordi- probably go without saying that he has Kirk has had to concede two be- nary life. done everything for his church from loved hobbies to advancing age: hunt- “Anyway,” he concludes, “it’s been delivering meals to shut-ins to chairing ing and fishing. He pursued both with a good tour.”
8 CORNELL VETERINARY MEDICINE DON’T FORGET
Ezra Cornell’s THE HORSE DOCTOR veterinary dream, Adapted from Dean Donald F. Smith’s Founder’s Day address 135 years later to the Cornell Alumni Association of Greater Rochester
Ezra Cornell, who endowed this univer- Cascadilla and Fall Creeks. This majes- sity with his name, his land, his wealth, tic tract at the crown of East Hill had and his social philosophy, was a practi- earlier belonged to Simeon DeWitt, cal soul. Although he made his fortune surveyor-general of New York. Cornell building a telegraph network for Samuel had already bought and forfeited the F. B. Morse, his roots and his heart were land nearly two decades earlier as his in farming. When he walked away from fortunes rose and fell. It was also from the Western Union Telegraph Com- this hilltop prospect that the 21-year- pany in 1855, weary of the infighting, old Cornell, trudging to Ithaca from he finally had the financial means to Homer in search of work, had first buy the land he had long wanted — a viewed the tidy geometry of the village broad, relatively flat hilltop expanse of Ithaca and beyond it the craggy out- with the most precipitous boundaries in line and deep, blue waters of Cayuga the Ithaca area, the gorges formed by Lake.
Photos: Cornell University Archives Photos: Cornell University
Rooted in agriculture: Cornell University’s newly erected South and North University Buildings (Morrill and White Halls) in 1868. Ezra Cornell’s cow pasture was still waiting to be transformed into the Arts Quad. The founder of the University is pictured above.
SPRING 2004 9 Cornell bought back his land in York State Agricultural Society. As he sity of Michigan: “...in central New York 1857 and was soon raising prize-winning gained experience, his thinking pro- there should arise a university which purebred cattle and experimenting with gressed, until at last he had his remedy: ...should take hold of the chief interest crops. He organized a farm club, he would found a university. of this country, which is agriculture; provided Ithaca with an agricultural Being thoroughly rooted in the then it should rise — step by step, grade reading room, and cultivated the agri- realm of practical science, Cornell by grade — until it fulfilled the highest cultural leaders of the state. He became wanted his university to give men and ideal of what a university should be.” increasingly aware of the dearth of women of all races and circumstances When Cornell’s university opened sound knowledge available to farmers, access to an education that would make its doors to students, those doors opened never moreso than as he tried desper- them useful to society. It would take the out onto his pasture. Cows still grazed ately to save a sick heifer, to no avail. scholarly influence of Andrew Dickson from time to time outside Morrill Hall, “Ignorant of the disease I did not know White, Cornell’s first president, to add which was then called South Univer- what remedy to apply,” he is quoted as the notion of liberal, or theoretical, sity Building. Working inside the build- having regretfully explained. But education and ensure that the univer- ing — and sometimes out in the pasture Cornell was a problem-solver; lacking sity would “afford an asylum for science as well — was a young professor of par- a short-term solution, he set his sights — where truth shall be sought for truth’s ticular importance to our college of vet- on the long view. He learned as much sake.” At the inauguration of Cornell erinary medicine, and indeed to the as he could about agriculture. He got University on October 7, 1868, George entire veterinary profession. He was, of elected to the New York State legisla- William Curtis, a leading literary figure course, Dr. James Law of the British ture and was appointed chairman of the and social reformer, recalled the dream Royal Veterinary College, a Scotsman Committee on Agriculture. In the same that White had revealed to him ten of clear vision, profound intellect, and
Cornell University Archives Cornell University year he was elected president of the New years earlier as a professor at the Univer- indestructible resolve. A. D. White had
a case of mistaken memory
herished legend Donald Smith has invoked According to an oft-repeated has it that Ezra this line, like other deans before anecdote, told in White’s Autobi- Cornell accompa- him. But something caused him to ography, Ezra Cornell saw White off Cnied Andrew Dickson wonder, as he prepared his re- in New York, and as the ship drew White to New York in marks for this year’s Founder’s Day away from the pier he cupped his 1868 to see him off for observance in Rochester, whether hands and shouted across the Europe. White was em- he ought to verify its authenticity gap: “Don’t forget the horse-doc- barking in search of before invoking it again. Perhaps tor!” But it seems certain that books, equipment, and it was the equivocal way in which Cornell was not in New York for the two special professors Ellis Leonard presented the story leave-taking. Probably White’s whom he and Cornell in A Cornell Heritage, his history memory transposed the circum- hoped to recruit for their new university: Goldwin of the Law years. Leonard said that stance from the Ithaca station to Smith, Regius professor of history at Oxford Univer- the legend had been so often re- the ship’s pier. sity, and James Law of the Royal Veterinary College counted that “today it is often Bishop then cites correspon- in London. The famed reminder that still rings in our taken as factual.” He cautioned dence from Max Farrand to George minds’ ears is Cornell’s shout from the pier: “Don’t that “in all probability Cornell did Lincoln Burr that began on 27 forget the horse doctor!” not escort White farther than the October 1913. Ithaca train station.” At this point Laura Finkel, vet- If only he had said that. Leonard took his information erinary college archivist, entered from a footnote in Morris Bishop’s the hunt. She pulled the Burr pa- Andrew Dickson White, first immensely readable A History of pers out of the vault and found that president of Cornell University Cornell, which was published in the cited correspondence began 1962. There on the bottom of page with Farrand’s question to Burr, a 84 Bishop writes: professor of medieval history and
10 CORNELL VETERINARY MEDICINE gone in search of a gifted veterinarian ulty moved the veterinary profession in erinary faculty was assured the contin- at the behest of Ezra Cornell, but the the United States “from empiricism and ued freedom to pursue progress in ani- man he found in London also embraced superstition to a sound scientific base,” mal health within the broader domains the highest aspirations of true science. as stated in a centennial proclamation of comparative medicine and public Law arrived intent on establishing from Governor Mario Cuomo. Whereas health. a science-based veterinary curriculum most U.S. veterinary colleges had their Even prior to the founding of the and uniform high standards for the roots in animal husbandry, Law insisted veterinary college in 1894, Law’s early training and licensing of veterinarians that veterinary medicine as it was to be students had transformed animal agri- in the state. After a protracted and studied at Cornell would be more culture and public health in fundamen- sometimes painful gestation of 26 years, closely allied to medicine than to agri- tal ways. Daniel Salmon, Law’s first the New York State Veterinary College culture. This defining concept was en- DVM graduate, identified the food-poi- was granted a charter in 1894 and wel- dorsed by Cornell’s third president, soning organism that bears his name — comed its first classes in the fall of 1896. Jacob Gould Schurman, and served to Salmonella. He later founded the Bureau Albany broke new legislative ground in stave off a hostile attempt by Liberty of Animal Industry, the forerunner of establishing this state-supported college Hyde Bailey, dean of the new agricul- the USDA. Another student, Cooper at a private university. The founding of ture college, to subsume veterinary Curtice, demonstrated that ticks carried the agriculture college ten years later medicine. Not until 1908, as Law’s long Texas fever, one of the greatly devas- would follow this precedent. and arduous labors as principal and dean tating cattle diseases of the subtropics. The academic standards estab- were drawing to an end, would the mat- Curtice’s Texas fever work led to the lished by Law and his small team of fac- ter be resolved. Finally, Cornell’s vet- discovery of intermediate hosts for the germs of malaria, sleeping sickness, yel- low fever, spotted fever, and bubonic
librarian of the President White Li- January 11, 1890. The University brary, about the truthfulness of the printed his speech for the program, anecdote. Burr replied to Farrand, so his words are preserved: a professor of history at Yale, that It was a cold, raw morning in he would not advise putting the March when Mr. Cornell went with story in print. Burr wrote of the eld- me to the dock, and gave his last erly president emeritus: kind assurances. He had felt Mr. White, though his mem- strongly the importance of having ory is often at fault as to details, the Agricultural department fairly is a perpetual wonder to me for equipped, and he had been told the vividness and the general faith- of an eminent Professor of Veteri- fulness with which he remembers nary Surgery in England who might scenes, episodes, characters — possibly be secured: the last everything that has in it life and words that I heard from the shore personality... He is a raconteur were from Mr. Cornell, who called rather than a statistician, and his out to me in a jocose way, “Bring reminiscences pay the penalty of back that horse-doctor!” much narration — gaining in dra- Burr wrote further that, after matic effectiveness at the cost of his Founder’s Day talk, Mr. White minute accuracy: it is like the ex- had had to endure the supreme perience of an anecdote retold by annoyance of being corrected by a succession of narrators. Waterman Thomas Hewett, appar- Burr wrote to Farrand: “On the whole, I think I would not put into print The story got started, or more ently a notoriously avid knuckle- the episode of ‘the horse doctor’. Use it orally with your classes until probably given wide currency, rapper who would later publish a Mr. White is off the stage. He is getting to be an old man now, and it when A. D. White related it during four-volume history of Cornell Uni- can not be long. He is sensitive about a slip, and I do not like to his Founder’s Day address, My question him regarding the matter.” Reminiscences of Ezra Cornell, on continued on next page
SPRING 2004 11 plague. Law and other of his students college in the world, in a profession that but for the very high quality of medical worked creatively and tirelessly to con- is widely regarded as being uniquely dis- and surgical care offered to animals of trol other threats to livestock, such as cerning in its academic selection crite- every description, whether companion, bovine pleuropneumonia and hog chol- ria. A veterinary degree from Cornell is production or sport animals, or wild, era. But more importantly they tackled valued above all others, and we have exotic, or endangered. For example, diseases that could be transmitted to been consistently ranked among the horses, which are in some ways our most people: rabies, anthrax, and the enor- premier veterinary colleges in the world fragile patients, are assured exceptional mous scourge of tuberculosis. throughout our history. For the past two care from neonatal intensive care for James Law stood for three prin- three-year periods, U.S. News and World the premature foal, to diagnostic imag- ciples that are fully alive today: the ne- Report has ranked Cornell’s veterinary ing for the diagnosis and treatment of cessity for rigor in science, education, college number one in the nation. airway problems, to emergency manage- and veterinary care; the confluence of The Cornell University Hospital ment of the colic patient, to the finest animal and public health under the ru- for Animals is renowned not only for equine orthopedic surgery available bric of comparative medicine; and the its first-rate facilities and equipment or anywhere. On the small-animal side, concept of Cornell as one university. As the excellence of its clinical instruction, the Companion Animal Hospital offers it has from the beginning, our college continues to disseminate and apply knowledge of practical benefit to soci- ety while raising the spires of scholar- ship ever higher. As it was in Law’s time, Cornell remains the most selective veterinary
Cornell University Archives Cornell University
versity. This was a touchy subject for White, one that Burr did not wish to raise with the old man. “You would understand that,” he writes to Farrand, “if you had stayed with us long enough to know the lynx- eye which Hewett always had for any lapse on the part of his col- leagues, and yet what a genius was his own for blundering... He has mellowed and sweetened greatly tion during White’s lifetime. It had an excellent illustration of the Ezra Cornell to have in the heart in these later years, but his cor- seemed to him “too petty to look unreliability of memory. of the university a veterinary col- rection belongs to his old scha– into” after Hewett’s charge of in- “White probably did a little lege which would be of great denfreude days.” The important accuracy, but Burr promised that checking on his own,” concludes worth.” We can also believe the point that Finkel gleaned from he and Farrand would “go to the Finkel, “and, finding no solid evi- words he did write in his autobi- these letters is that White did not bottom of the matter after both dence to support his memory, de- ography as he remembered the ac- publish the horse-doctor anecdote [White] and Mr. Hewett are gone.” cided that his storytelling had quisition of James Law: in his 1905 autobiography as It seems doubtful that they ever gotten the best of him.” Never was there a more stated in Bishop’s footnote. He did. Farrand replied to Burr: We may never know what Ezra happy selection. From that day to dropped it, Burr supposes, “in def- The reason I brought the Cornell said, or when he said it, or this, thirty-six years, he has been erence to Mr. Hewett’s correction.” question up was because I where. But we should take A.D. a tower of strength to the univer- White kept detailed journals thought I remembered Mr. White’s White at his word in stating to the sity, and has rendered incalcu- throughout his life, and his corre- telling the story on himself as an New York State Veterinary Medical lable services to the State and spondence with Cornell was al- interesting case of mistaken Society, as reported in an Ithaca Nation. ready ensconced in the library. But memory. I think that I heard you Journal article unearthed by Col- Without a doubt, that was Burr did not wish to rub salt in his use it orally in one of your classes. lege librarian Susanne Whitaker, precisely what Cornell had had in wound by researching the ques- Accordingly it occurred to me as that “it had been a main desire of mind all along.
12 CORNELL VETERINARY MEDICINE Dede Hatch
Equine medicine, then and now. OPPOSITE PAGE: Professor James Law delivers a lecture with the aid of the Auzoux horse, a 97-piece model in papier mâché. A. D. White acquired both the model and the professor during the same tour of Europe in 1868. THIS PAGE: Students, technicians, and residents from radiology and anesthesiology wheel an anesthetized patient toward the CT scanner. broad and deep expertise in internal broad spectrum of public-health-ori- be designated a member of the National medicine, cardiology, neurology, oncol- ented research undertaken in our col- Animal Health Laboratory Network ogy, ophthalmology, orthopedics, sur- lege and in the College of Agriculture created and funded by the USDA and gery, and many other areas, all of it and Life Sciences, the veterinary col- the Department of Homeland Security. supported by our outstanding anesthe- lege is home to one of the premier ani- In the event of an outbreak of foreign siologists and radiologists. And the mal health diagnostic laboratories in the animal disease, Cornell could be called compassion and competence of our country. Long regarded as setting the upon to help with testing. nursing team are second to none. standard for the profession, the Animal The Zoonoses Research Unit, a Veterinary medical expertise is as Health Diagnostic Laboratory at new program being established at critical to the preservation of the pub- Cornell has recently gained even greater Cornell through a $6.6 million contract lic health now as it was in Professor prominence and potential through the with the National Institute of Allergy Law’s era. One need look no further recruitment of Alfonso Torres, labora- and Infectious Diseases, will bring sci- than the recent spate of avian influenza tory director and associate dean for vet- entists from the AHDL and the De- deaths in Asia or the discovery of BSE erinary public policy, who joined our partment of Population Medicine and (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) faculty two years ago after heading the Diagnostic Sciences into closer collabo- — popularly known as “mad cow dis- Veterinary Services Division of the ration with investigators in two depart- ease” — in a cow in Washington state USDA. ments — Food Science, and Biological to acknowledge our dependence as a so- Under Torres’s leadership the and Environmental Engineering — in ciety on an organized network of vet- AHDL has been awarded a contract the College of Agriculture and Life Sci- erinarians who are trained to respond with the USDA to test for scrapie and ences. The researchers will study food- in a crisis. chronic wasting disease, two TSEs — and waterborne diseases common to The federal government provides transmissable spongiform encephal– animals and humans, develop on-site much of that network through the Vet- opathies — that are related to BSE. Our diagnostic methods and an Internet erinary Services Division of the USDA. expansion capabilities in this area free database for exchange of data, im– But selected veterinary colleges, Cornell the federal diagnostic laboratories to con- plement cost-effective intervention key among them, are playing an increas- centrate on BSE testing. In addition, ours strategies, and develop an emergency re- ingly significant role. In addition to the is one of 12 laboratories in the U.S. to sponse team.
SPRING 2004 13 Rigor is also evident in the depth novel approaches that would not be of our research focus. Throughout the readily testable in humans — and history of this college, our faculty mem- to do so rapidly. This is one reason bers have made major contributions why some of the very best biomedi- to the advancement of biomedical cal scientists find such a welcome science, often with discoveries that home in the veterinary college at offer direct benefit to domestic or Cornell. To quote Professor Rich- companion animals as well as having ard Cerione, “Because we are a vet- important implications for human erinary college on what is truly an health. Cornell has remained a leader exceptional research campus, we among veterinary colleges in the qual- have unique opportunities for im- ity and productivity of our research plementing novel approaches that programs, which are grounded in dis- are emerging from a diversity of sci- ciplined study and underwritten by The original veterinary faculty on the occasion entific disciplines including chem- highly competitive, peer-reviewed of James Law’s retirement in 1908. SEATED, L. TO istry, physics, and engineering.” grant funding. R.: Veranus A. Moore, Law, Simon H. Gage; STAND- This emphasis on research at Cor- Biology is a strong unifying force ING: Walter L. Williams, Pierre S. Fish, Grant S. nell supports the precepts of James Law in medicine, whether we are talking Hopkins. BELOW: Liberty Hyde Bailey breaks and his original students. Law saw the about mice, dogs, or people. As Law ground for the agriculture college in 1905. key to the future of medical discovery in the biological union between human and animal health. That’s why the Schurman decision of 1908 was so pre- cious to him. The clarity of Law’s vi- sion is apparent in this excerpt from his 1878 report to the Pennsylvania Board of Agriculture: Now that veterinary medicine has been established on a scientific basis, the time has come when the bonds that unite the students and practitioners of human and veterinary medicine should be knit more closely, and the two branches be brought into more intimate relationships…Both branches of medicine suffer from separa- tion. Each is necessary to the rapid progress and highest advancement of the other. During the past few years this col- lege has pursued with vigor the culture of interdisciplinary activities that the Photos: Cornell University Archives Photos: Cornell University University propounded in creating the New Life Sciences Initiative. We have recognized in his day, veterinary medi- advancement of new methods for can- purposefully lowered the barriers for cine is not that distinct from human cer prevention, diagnosis, and therapeu- interdisciplinary research and teaching medicine, and veterinary education is tic intervention. Approximately 40 and increasingly demonstrated our steeped in the study of comparative research programs on the Ithaca cam- value as the center for comparative medicine. pus are vigorously pursuing answers to medicine on the Ithaca campus. Our The College of Veterinary Medi- basic and far-reaching questions about future lies in the pursuit and applica- cine at Cornell is home to the Sprecher the nature of cancer. It may seem sur- tion of knowledge for both present and Institute for Comparative Cancer Re- prising to some, but the National Can- future benefit and for both animals and search, a nexus for the integration of cer Institute funds almost twice as much humans, just as it did in the time of basic and biomedical science with the research on Cornell’s Ithaca campus as James Law. Cornell and White would clinical practice of human and animal at Weill Cornell Medical College in recognize the full embodiment of their medicine. Directed by clinical oncology New York City. ideals in the mission and goals of this professor Rodney Page, the Sprecher The availability of animal models college. I daresay that both men would Institute’s purpose is to drive discovery for research makes it possible for the be very pleased to see who we are and throughout Cornell University toward College’s cancer program faculty to test where we are headed.
14 CORNELL VETERINARY MEDICINE number, gender, and the FUTURE of theauxiliary
hen the Auxiliary to the New W York State Veterinary Medical Society met last October in Saratoga Bea Schimoler: a tribute Springs, president Ann Hancock asked the assembled members the question The Auxiliary lost one of its leading la- she has asked every year since 2001: dies on May 14, 2003 with the death of should the Auxiliary continue to func- Bea Schimoler of Glen Head, New York. tion? No one leaped to her feet with a Mrs. Schimoler served for many years ready answer, but after some subdued discussion the consensus was that it as the group’s historian, saving every Bea and Lou Schimoler record of their activities and photograph- should, at least for the time being. There ing every event. In the mid-1970s she sion and the Auxiliary. She was a quiet were eleven women present, out of a held every office in turn from treasurer supporter and mover, and a real role membership that on paper looks robust: through president of the group and was model. My biggest impression of Bea was more than 350 people paid dues last also the parliamentarian who swore in that she was very much a lady, a very year. new officers. lovely lady. I think that that’s unique.” Those dues and the Auxiliary’s “She kept track of everything,” re- “Bea’s great love was day-to-day fund-raising activities — which have members Doris Smith. “She was a charity,” says her husband, Lou Schimoler, included the assembling of three excel- teacher and a member of the Cedar DVM ‘47. In addition to her work for the lent cookbooks, exceptional quilts, ac- Swamp Historical Society. She was very Auxiliary, he says that she ran the St. complished artwork, and many other interested in history and in making sure Vincent de Paul Society for the Nassau creative projects — have meant a lot that everything was preserved.” She or- North Conference. As part of her work for to the College and its students over the ganized all of the material she had com- that organization she established a food years. In the 50 years from 1948 to 1998, piled into a series of scrapbooks that pantry 25 years ago. Two weeks after her the Auxiliary donated $178,000 for now reside in the College library. death it was dedicated to her memory. scholarships, fellowships, emergency “She was a very gracious lady, very Schimoler notes, too, that his wife student loans, furnishings in the Hagan helpful, always supportive, and always was always looking for ways to build up Room and the James Law lobby, hospi- willing to do a little extra,” recalls Cully interest in the Auxiliary. “She worked hard tal equipment, and library books. Since Fox, herself an Auxiliary stalwart and a to bring in men, to broaden the base of 1998 they have contributed in excess past president of the group. “I can’t say the Auxiliary,” he says, adding that it was of $50,000 more, including a gift for the enough nice things about her. She was she who recruited the group’s first male linear accelerator that was matched by always there to greet anyone and every- officer, Scott Campbell. the Kresge Foundation. In addition to one.” These sentiments are universally In tribute to his wife, Dr. Schimoler their Cornell giving, the Auxiliary has shared. “Bea Schimoler was one of the made a generous gift last summer to the worked to promote responsible pet own- great ladies; she just made you feel so Auxiliary Scholarship Fund and followed ership and secondary science education. good. She did this for everybody,” says it with another in December. Auxiliary They also lend financial support to the Smith. Carroll Manning, another long- president Ann Hancock encourages oth- State Society’s Political Education time member and past president, says, ers wishing to honor Bea Schimoler’s Committee. “She was Steady Eddie, to say the least. memory to consider contributions of their But this year no one was interested She was always faithful to the profes- own to the scholarship fund. in coordinating the silent auction that had been a fixture of the annual meet- ing of the State Society. Motions made last year were never followed through
SPRING 2004 15 on, because no one volunteered to do some intimidation to meet at the 1918 the work. Hancock spoke for several of convention, by which time five state the women present — Doris Smith, auxiliaries had formed. The next year Carroll Manning, Hannah Cook, Dee there were fourteen, and by 1921 the Dee Warriner, Lucille Saunders, Rae national organization was well estab- Hart, Mary McCarthy, Bertha Guild, lished, although attempts to dissolve it Heidi Kallfelz, and Kitty Mancuso — would continue for several years. when she said that she had already By the time the Ladies’ Auxiliary taken on all she could handle herself. to the New York State Veterinary Medi- She has a family and a demanding job cal Association, as the members used in special education. Many of the mem- to refer to themselves, was established bers who were there, like many of the in 1948, the national auxiliary had long members who were not there, could tell been fully accepted. New York was one much the same story. Still, Hancock and of the later states to form an auxiliary; her fellow officers have agreed to serve by 1950 only four of the contiguous in their posts for a third year. If they do states — Connecticut, Delaware, Mas- not, it is not clear who will. sachusetts, and Montana — had not or- It used to be that officers rotated ganized on the state level. Auxiliary annually through all the posts in the membership grew steadily, and the an- same order from treasurer to past presi- nual meeting of the New York State dent. “That way there was always some- Society became a much-anticipated body who knew the position you were vacation destination for the wives and going into and could help you through children of the state’s veterinary prac- it,” recalls Doris Smith, wife of Dean titioners, and an opportunity to form Donald Smith. The vice-president used and nurture lasting friendships. to be in charge of organizing a yearly But traditional conceptions of raffle, which Smith remembers as a very women and their roles in the workplace popular and successful fund-raiser. “For and American culture were stood on the women who did it, it was a lot of their ears amid the societal transforma- fun,” she says. But fewer and fewer wives tions of the 1970s. Women’s auxiliaries were interested in running for office or began to be seen by some as vestiges of taking on such a time-consuming a narrowly prescribed past. In response project. “It got to be that the same to changing realities, in 1979 the New people were doing it over and over, and The goals of the Aux- York group dropped “Ladies” from the that’s when it stopped being fun.” iliary—to support the name of the organization and began re- Smith, who works as a reference assis- advancement of the ferring to their meeting activities as the tant in Cornell’s management library, veterinary profession, “spouse program”. By then three of the served for several years as the Auxiliary’s help students in fi- four veterinary classes attending Cor- treasurer and liaison with the College. nancial difficulty, and nell were composed of equal numbers When the Women’s Auxiliary to encourage friendship of men and women; the balance would the American Veterinary Medical As- soon begin to tip significantly in favor among its members— sociation was formed at the Kansas City of women. (The current DVM classes Veterinary College in 1917, it was the will never go out of are approximately 80 percent female.) first auxiliary established in connection style or lose their im- Auxiliary membership peaked at over with any of the healing arts, and it portance. All that’s 600 in the mid-1970s but by 1990 had shook up the status quo. While some needed are a few en- declined again to something over 400. veterinarians had always taken their ergetic new members On a national level the trend was much wives along to the annual convention, with a flair for think- the same; membership stood at 10,000 many felt that women had no place at ing outside the box. in 1976 but had declined to less than a men’s meeting. As is still true today, 7,000 by 1985. According to Bev Rich- however, many of the women who ardson, secretary to the Auxiliary to the joined the national and state auxilia- AVMA and a member of the Kansas ries worked in their husbands’ practices, auxiliary, membership was tallied at and they were confident that they be- only 1,340 last year, with approximately longed at their husbands’ sides. They 25 state auxiliaries still in existence. Two stood up to vocal opposition and even of those are in the process of merging.
16 CORNELL VETERINARY MEDICINE The New York auxiliary has had “People are beginning to feel extremely form it has, but I still think that the one male officer in the past and cur- isolated all the way around. We’re stuck husbands will be there with their vet- rently has at least three male members. on a computer. Our holidays and spare erinarian wives, and they’ll be inter- The number of dues-paying members time have to be organized around our ested in the other husbands, and people has been bolstered in recent years by the children’s school schedules,” she points will just start enjoying each other again. addition of an Auxiliary check-off to out. “In the cycle of things, I wouldn’t That need is still there; it doesn’t mat- the dues form for the State Society. No be surprised if the organization starts ter if you’re male or female.” one knows how many dues payers con- figuring out that people who go to pro- “We are currently looking for ways sider themselves part of the Auxiliary, fessional meetings want to go with their to change our organization,” Richard- but there is no doubt that it still has families and have some time together. son concurs. “To be truthful, we haven’t broad financial support. It’s going to cycle again. I’d be surprised determined just what changes to make. “I think people are voting with if the Auxiliary continues to take the If the Auxiliary is going to be an orga- nization of the future, we must become an organization in which the male spouses will be more comfortable. At this point, we are looking for ‘a few good men’ who are willing to come in and help make changes in an effective way.” Its concept may have to evolve, but the goals of the Auxiliary — to support the advancement of the veterinary pro- fession, help students in financial diffi- culty, and encourage friendship among its members — will never go out of style or lose their importance. All that’s need- ed are a few energetic new members with a flair for thinking outside the box. So how about it, men?
their money,” observes Smith. “People like the idea and they want to support it, but they don’t want to lead it.” Ironi- cally, this financial support creates an increasingly difficult bind for the core membership; as long as the Auxiliary continues to bring in dollars for its fa- vorite causes, there have to be officers to manage the money and decide how to disburse it. Recognizing that the bur- den might become untenable, in 2000 Smith recommended the creation of an endowed scholarship that would serve as a lasting tribute to the Auxiliary. “We designated the money for the scholar- ship fund, knowing that even if we folded that day, we would have enough dues support to fulfill our commitment ABOVE: A gathering of presidents in 1986. SEATED, L. TO R.: Anita Laurie, Bea Schimoler, to the endowment,” she explains. Pearl Zimmerman, Linda Yartz, Bonnie Glendening. Standing: Becky Holden, Carroll Manning, Smith sees hope for the Auxiliary Lucille Saunders, Marge Lopez, Florence Grossman. BELOW: Officers for 1961. L. TO R.: Mrs. Donald in the same social forces that have McKown, president-elect; Mrs. Myron Fincher, membership chairwoman; Mrs. Thomas J. Love, brought it to its present crossroads. president; Mrs. Henry Grossman, treasurer; Mrs. DuBois Jenkins, secretary.
SPRING 2004 17 lish, veterinary neuroanatomy. Among Robert B. Hillman, DVM ’55, MS ’61, CVM people more than 200 publications he has four DACT was recognized in September, books, all of them classic texts in use 2003 with the David E. Bartlett Lec- worldwide. He has identified numerous ture Award. Given jointly by the So- novel syndromes or diseases and diag- ciety for Theriogenology and the Alexander de Lahunta, DVM ’58, nosed and docu- American College of Theriogenolo- DACVIM, DACVP (hon.), mented thousands of gists, the award honored Hillman’s ex- PhD ’63, the James Law Profes- cases. tensive contributions to the field of sor of Anatomy, was honored In addition to theriogenology as a large-animal clini- last October with the New York being a founding dip- cian, researcher, and teacher. State Veterinary Medical lomate in the sub- After graduating from Cornell, Society’s Outstanding Service specialty of neurology Hillman served in the U.S. Army Vet- to Veterinary Medicine Award. within the American erinary Corps and spent a year in pri-
FACULTY Throughout his 40 years as College of Veterinary vate practice before returning for an a member of the anatomy fac- Internal Medicine, de de Lahunta internship in the ambulatory clinic and ulty, de Lahunta has stood out as an ex- Lahunta was named in December, 2002 for master’s degree study in reproduc- ceptional teacher, clinical neurologist, as an honorary diplomate of the Ameri- tive pathology as a Public Health Ser- and scholar in a field he helped estab- can College of Veterinary Pathologists. vice research fellow. He joined the
Torres: Mandatory animal identification system needed by Roger Segelken, Cornell News Service from non-ambulatory versal identification system had been in cattle or any cattle place last year, Torres suggested, Ameri- f all cattle in the United States car-
over 30 months of can and Canadian officials could more y Committee ried identification, tracking of herds age. He noted that readily have traced the diseased animal exposed to bovine spongiform en- the BSE agent (the and others in its herd. cephalopathy (BSE, or "mad cow" I misfolded proteins, Torres commended the USDA and disease) or other animal diseases called prions) is the Food and Drug Administration for would be easier and faster, according to known to accumulate what he called effective actions follow- a Cornell animal-disease and public- in those tissues of in- Torres ing the BSE finding in December, add- policy expert. fected cattle. "These materials should ing: "These actions have maintained Alfonso Torres, executive director not enter the human food chain or the consumer confidence in our beef prod- of the New York State Animal Health animal feed chain," Torres stated. ucts. While the trade embargoes were Diagnostic Laboratory at Cornell's Col- At Cornell, Torres also serves as the to be expected in a situation like this, I lege of Veterinary Medicine, made the
associate dean of veterinary public hope that, with the implementation of Nutrition and Forestr Agriculture, Photo: U.S.Senate suggestion during his testimony Jan. 27 policy. He is a former chief veterinary further actions as suggested, we would on BSE before the U.S. Senate Agri- officer of the USDA and former direc- continue to enhance the defense of our culture, Nutrition and Forestry Com- tor of the Plum Island Animal Disease nation against BSE and sustain domes- mittee. Center. tic and international confidence in our Torres recommended "... that Con- Torres said during the Senate com- animal industries and the safety of our gress in collaboration with the USDA mittee hearing: "While I recognize and food and feed supply." [U.S. Department of Agriculture] needs appreciate the many efforts of the The full text of the Torres testi- to make this national animal ID system USDA and the animal industries in mony is at the veterinary college Web a mandatory program." He also de- developing and implementing a na- site: http://www.vet.cornell.edu/ scribed two other measures to help re- tional animal ID system, the weakness publicresources/pr-torresTestimony. lieve the trade embargoes imposed on is that such a system is a voluntary ef- htm. the United States because of mad cow fort at this time." Also testifying at the Senate hear- disease: a more equivalent and propor- The hearing to discuss food safety, ing, which was chaired by Sen. Thad tional trade policy, based on the degree livestock marketing and international Cochran (R-Miss.), were USDA Sec- of BSE risks with trade partners; and trade was called as a result of the dis- retary Ann M. Veneman and U.S. Food stepped-up enforcement of bans on the covery last December of a BSE-infected and Drug Administration Deputy Com- use of certain high-risk materials (such dairy cow in Washington state. If a uni- missioner Lester M. Crawford. as brains, spinal cords and intestines)
18 CORNELL VETERINARY MEDICINE faculty in 1961 and was granted emeri- nual meeting in Oc- Campylobacter venerealis, a then- tus status in 1995. tober, 2003. common venereal disease in bull Hillman developed several original Lein spent eight studs. That work prompted him to teaching programs and was recognized years in a group pursue PhD studies at the Univer- with the Norden Distinguished Teacher mixed practice in sity of Connecticut. After earn- Award in 1974 and a Centennial Com- Machias, New York ing a degree in pathology, he mendation from the New York State before returning to returned to Cornell in 1974 as an Veterinary Medical Association in his alma mater in associate professor of theriogen- 1990. In addition to other professional 1965. Working as a ology with a joint appointment in service, he has chaired committees of research associate pathology. He retired in 2001 but the American Association of Equine with professor Ken- stayed on as director of the AHDL Practitioners, the Genesee Valley neth McEntee, Lein until the arrival of Alfonso Torres Breeders Association, and the National DVM ’44, a repro- the following year. Lein has held Association of Animal Breeders. ductive pathologist who headed the office and served on national advisory Large Animal Clinic at the time, Lein boards and committees for many orga- Francis A. Kallfelz, DVM ’62, DACVN, studied and subsequently eliminated nizations and government agencies. PhD ’66 was unanimously selected as 2003 New York State Veterinarian of the Year. Kallfelz, the James Law Pro- fessor of Medicine (Nutrition) and a In Memoriam past president (2001) of the New York State Veterinary Medical Society, was T. Richard Houpt, professor of veterinary physiology, honored at the State Society’s annual emeritus and husband of Professor Katherine Albro meeting in October, 2003. Houpt, also a veterinary physiologist, died unexpect- Kallfelz has been a member of the edly on October 7, 2003, two days before his 78th Cornell faculty since 1966. From 1990 birthday. A member of the Cornell faculty since 1971, to 1998 he served as director of the Vet- he had spent the day in his laboratory, as usual, and erinary Medical Teaching Hospital, went home pleased to have concluded his latest re- which was renamed search project. the Cornell Univer- After receiving a VMD from the University of sity Hospital for Ani- Pennsylvania in 1950 and a master’s degree in vet- mals during his erinary pathology from the University of Illinois in tenure. He is a mem- Houpt 1953, Houpt joined the Duke Desert Expedition to ber of the New York Algeria. The team found that camels do not store State Board for Vet- water in their humps. Rather, they conserve water by raising their body tempera- erinary Medicine and ture and conserve nitrogen by recycling it. This experience led to graduate studies was elected by the Kallfelz of urea recycling in ruminants and horses at the University of Pennsylvania. After AVMA House of receiving his PhD in medical physiology in 1958, he joined the faculty at Penn, Delegates to serve from 1983 to 1988 where he remained until coming to Cornell. In 1960 he and colleague Ted Hammel on the Council on Research. traveled to Lapland, where they found that reindeer have difficulty keeping cool In addition to his many contribu- when they are physically active and must pant, even in winter, to dissipate heat. tions to organized veterinary medicine, More recently, Professor Emeritus Houpt had been studying the physiological Kallfelz was cited for contributing to the controls of feeding and drinking in ruminants and pigs; he found that osmotic understanding of urolithiasis and ad- pressure in the gastrointestinal tract is a cause of satiety, and that water is ab- vancing the clinical use of radioisotopes sorbed from the gastrointestinal tract much more quickly than expected after an and other radiological techniques animal drinks. In addition to his research, Houpt continued to lecture in the veteri- through his studies of mineral metabo- nary curriculum and gave demonstrations of rumen function to both high-school lism and minerals in the diet. and veterinary students. He published over 60 scientific papers as well as book chapters. In 2000 he was honored by the University of Pennsylvania with the Alumni Donald H. Lein, DVM ’57, PhD, DACVP, Award of Merit for Teaching and Research. retired director of the Animal Health Dean Donald F. Smith said of Houpt that he was “one of those rare individuals Diagnostic Laboratory and former chair- whose breadth of knowledge matched his depth of understanding. He could speak man of the Department of Population with authority and precision on topics ranging from ruminant metabolism to ani- Medicine and Diagnostic Science, was mal husbandry to acid-base balance.” He added, “Dr. Houpt’s many students and elected president of the United States colleagues were charmed by his equal measures of charm, wit, and humility.” Animal Health Association at their an-
SPRING 2004 19 USAHA is an organization of state sored by the College’s Office of Gradu- renowned expert on host-pathogen in- and federal animal-health officials, ate Education. David Russell, professor teractions, particularly those involving practicing veterinarians, research scien- and chairman of the Department of Mi- species of the food-borne bacteria Sal- tists, and livestock producers. More crobiology and Immunology and former monella and Campylobacter. than 1,000 of them attended the interim associate dean of research and McGregor, an immunologist whose weeklong meeting in San Diego, where graduate education, announced that the own research focused primarily on List- 30 resolutions were passed to address a symposium’s keynote presentation will eria monocytogenes, came to Cornell in variety of national issues of importance henceforth be known 1977 from the Trudeau Institute to head to animal and public health. as the Douglas D. the James A. Baker Institute for Ani- McGregor Research mal Health. Director there until 1991, Cornell’s Student Chapter of the Lecture. The inau- he also served from 1988 to 2001 as the AVMA presented gural keynote ad- College’s first associate dean of research their 2003 Teaching dress was made by and graduate education. Among vari- Excellence Awards Professor Jorge Ga- ous initiatives, McGregor created the to lecturer Paul Maza, lán of Yale Uni- Summer Leadership Program, a highly DVM and senior lec- versity School of select and successful program designed turer Linda Mizer, Medicine, a world- McGregor to encourage outstanding veterinary DVM, MSc, PhD, both of the Depart- Maza ment of Biomedical Sciences. Maza, a graduate In Memoriam of the University of Washington and Isidor I. Sprecker, DVM ’39 died January 10 in Boynton Ross University, has Beach, Florida at the age of 90. With his wife, Sylvia, taught at Cornell Dr. Sprecker was a Foremost Benefactor of Cornell since 2000, partici- University who lent his support and his name (in its pating in Blocks I, II, original spelling) to the College’s Flower-Sprecher and VII, Management Library, the Frank and Rosa Rhodes Presidential Mizer of Fluid and Electro- Scholarships in Veterinary Medicine, and the recently lyte Disorders, Anatomy of the Carnivore, endowed Sprecher Institute for Comparative Can- Surgery III, and Junior Surgery. Maza cer Research. The Spreckers also created Presiden- also assists practitioners and cat own- tial Scholarships for undergraduates in the College ers as a consultant for the Feline Health of Agriculture and Life Sciences and an endowment Center. for Jewish studies that honors his parents, Morris Mizer received her DVM with hon- and Elizabeth Sprecher. ors from the University of Guelph and “Dr. and Mrs. Sprecker have been extraordinarily generous towards Cornell in her graduate degrees from Ohio State general, and the College of Veterinary Medicine in particular,” wrote Dean Donald University. She joined Cornell’s faculty F. Smith in announcing his death to the College community. “Dr. Sprecker’s love of in 1991. In addition to her teaching du- education, music, poetry, students, and libraries defined his philanthropic ideals.” ties, Mizer has been active in writing Smith also remarked that Dr. Sprecker was “a bright and engaging man with a and editing cases for study, compiling sharp wit and analytical mind.” the tutor guide, arranging comparative Bonita Voiland, assistant dean for hospital operations, remembers Dr. Sprecker laboratories, and overall curriculum as being an engineer and inventor at heart, noting: “He invented techniques, tools, design for Block I: the Animal Body. She and treatments to improve the flow of life both within and outside of veterinary has been responsible for BioAP 313, a practice.” She added that he was also a clockmaker and a woodworker with a histology course that is required cam- meticulously organized shop in his garage. pus-wide in the Field of Physiology. She The Spreckers spent their professional lives in Waterbury, Connecticut, she as has also served as head of the course a teacher, reading specialist, and consultant and he as a small-animal practitio- Comparative Anatomy: Patterns and ner. During World War II Dr. Sprecker served in the Air Corps and the Veterinary Functions. Corps. Financing a college education during the Depression was very difficult, and Professor Douglas D. McGregor, MD, Dr. Sprecker was grateful for the assistance he received from Cornell. He often DPhil received a surprise honor during said that the three most important things in his life were his family, his studies at the First Annual Biological and Bio- Cornell, and meeting Sylvia. His beloved wife of 58 years survives him. medical Sciences Symposium spon-
20 CORNELL VETERINARY MEDICINE students to pursue careers in biomedi- cal research. In the 14 years since its establishment, the program has drawn American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care: 379 students from 53 veterinary colleges Teresa DeFrancesco, DVM ’91, Justine Lee, DVM ’97. DeFrancesco was also on four continents. honored in 2003 with the Carl J. Norden-Pfizer Distinguished Teaching Award at North Carolina State University. James R. Richards, DVM, director of the Cornell Feline Health Center, assumed American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine: the presidency of the American Asso- Georgina Barone, DVM ’97 (neurology); John Farrelly, DVM ciation of Feline Practitioners in Octo- ’98 (medical oncology); Peter J. Brofman, DVM ’98 (inter- ber, 2003. Richards, who received his nal medicine — small animal); and Jean A. Ferreri, DVM DVM cum laude from Ohio State Uni- ’97 (internal medicine — small animal). Farrelly is cur- versity, has been a member of the AAFP rently an instructor in the Department of Molecular Medi- Executive Board since 1994. In addition cine at Cornell and a resident in radiation oncology. After to serving as the organization’s official receiving his DVM, he went to the Animal Medical Cen- Farrelly spokesman, he has ter in New York for an internship and stayed on there to served as their alter- complete his residency in medical oncology. nate delegate to the American Veterinary Dental College: AVMA and has co-
NEW DIPLOMATES Thomas P. Chamberlain, DVM ’78. chaired AAFP prac- tice-guidelines panels on feline vaccines, retrovirus testing, de- clawing, and feline Richards bovine genital vibriosis. Winter then Paige Adams, DVM, a doctoral senior care. turned to the study of host-pathogen candidate in the laboratory of At Cornell, Richards serves as edi- interactions in bovine genital myco- Professor Douglas Antczak, took tor-in-chief of CatWatch, a subscription plasmosis and brucellosis, garnering in- first place in the graduate-stu- publication of the Cornell University ternational recognition for his expertise dent abstract presentation com- Hospital for Animals. He lectures on fe- in mechanisms of protective immunity petition at the annual meeting line health issues within the veterinary in brucellosis. of the Conference of Research curriculum and sits on several advisory Winter was a founding diplomate Workers in Animal Diseases. panels serving industry. He is author of of the American College of Veterinary Her poster, entitled Interspecies the ASPCA Complete Guide to Cats and Microbiologists. Other honors include matings: Lack of T cell modulation numerous chapters and articles in vet- election as a fellow of the Infectious STUDENTS at the fetal-maternal interface? de- erinary texts and lay publications. Diseases Society of America and the tailed alterations in the maternal im- Distinguished Veterinary Immunologist mune responses of horse mares carrying The eighty-fourth annual meeting of Award from the American Association mule conceptuses. the Conference of Research Workers, of Veterinary Immunologists. He retired held in November, 2003, was dedicated in 1995. to Alexander J. Winter, DVM, DACVM, Martin Fettman, DVM ’80, MS ’80, PhD, the James Law Professor of Mi- PhD, a professor and associate crobiology, Emeritus. Kim Baldwin, LVT, the Compan- dean at Colorado State Univer- Winter received his veterinary ion Animal Hospital’s manager sity’s College of Veterinary Medi- training at the University of Illinois and of nursing services, has become cine and Biomedical Sciences, pursued graduate study of uterine de- one of only four veterinary tech- was recently named Veterinar- fense mechanisms at the University of nicians in the state to earn spe- ian of the Year by the Colorado Wisconsin. He came to Cornell in 1963 STAFF cialty certification from the Veterinary Medical Association.
ALUMNI after four years on the faculty at the Academy of Veterinary Emer- Cited as one of University of Pennsylvania and devoted gency and Critical Care Technicians the Association’s most his career to studying immunity to in- (AVECCT). Her professional designa- outstanding mem- fections of the bovine reproductive tion is now Veterinary Technician Spe- bers, he currently ad- tract. For two decades his laboratory did cialist (Emergency and Critical Care). vises their student leading research on mechanisms of im- The AVECCT is the first specialty or- chapter and chairs munity and virulence factors associated ganization to be recognized by the the CVMA Commiss- with Campylobacter fetus, the reproduc- North American Veterinary Techni- ion on Education, tive-tract pathogen responsible for cians Association. where he is instru- Fettman
SPRING 2004 21 mental in recruiting faculty to Colorado the United States and the Massachu- For Loew’s many contributions as State. The state association recognized setts Society for the Prevention of Cru- dean at Tufts, an anonymous donor gave him in 2001 with the President’s Award, elty to Animals, which named him the university the means to honor him which he received for “reinforcing and Veterinarian of the Year in 1989. He was in 1994 with the dedication of the refreshing the valuable partnership be- also honored in 1983 by the Canadian Franklin M. Loew Veterinary Medical tween CVMA and CSU.” Federation of Humane Societies and in Education Center. Loew died on April As associate dean, Fettman has re- 1994 by the Scientists Center for Ani- 22, 2003. sponsibility for administering the pro- mal Welfare. While at Tufts, Loew cre- fessional veterinary medical programs at ated the Center for Animals and Public The late Jack L. Mara, DVM ’51, Colorado State. As such, he oversees Policy. He also chaired the board of DACVN was recognized in January for the veterinary curriculum and guided trustees of the Boston Zoological Soci- his “unrivaled and exemplary lifetime the creation of North America’s first ety and served on the advisory boards of service” with the 2004 Mark L. Mor- combined DVM/MBA program. A of Harvard University’s Primate Re- ris, Sr. Lifetime Achievement Award. clinical pathologist and clinical nutri- search Center and of the National Ref- Mara was nominated by a “veritable tionist, he also conducts research on the erence Center on Bioethical Literature who’s who in the veterinary profession,” pathophysiology of nutritional and within Georgetown University’s according to the release, including metabolic diseases, particularly on ad- Kennedy Institute of Ethics. twelve deans, six of the eight living pre- junct nutritional therapy for cancer pa- tients and management of fluid and electrolyte metabolism. In 1993 Fettman became the world’s first veterinarian-astronaut when he flew as a payload specialist for the Spacelab Life Sciences-2 mission aboard the shuttle Columbia. He remains ac- tive in space-sciences research as a spe- cial advisor to NASA and as chairman of the Space Station Biological Re- search Project Science Working Group.
Franklin M. Loew, DVM ’65, PhD, former dean of veterinary medicine at Tufts and Cornell, was honored posthumously on November 7 with the AVMA Animal Welfare Award. The John Huntley in Iraq annual award, which was announced at New York State’s chief veterinarian, John Huntley, DVM ’80, has spent the past year the AVMA Animal commanding the Army’s 414th Civil Affairs Battalion in Baghdad, Iraq. Colonel Welfare Forum in Huntley and his team of Utica, New York-based reservists have led Iraqi construc- Chicago, is presented tion crews in renovating more than 200 primary and secondary schools, according to a member of the to a feature story in the November 3 edition of the Albany Times-Union. AVMA who has ad- “A lot of the schools had been badly damaged in combat and then looted. They vanced animal well- stole everything that wasn’t nailed down,” Huntley is quoted as saying. The article being, shown exem- also notes that school buildings were allowed to deteriorate for many years under plary dedication to Saddam Hussein’s regime. animal care, and con- On each project Huntley consults with sheiks, tribal leaders, and local govern- tributed to the com- Loew ment councils; operation of the reopened facilities is handed over to the local munity and to soci- leadership. “The Iraqi people really care about their kids, and they’ve made re- ety. Loew, one of the first veterinarians opening schools a top priority,” he said. to author a paper on the welfare of large Huntley, who heads the New York State Department of Agriculture and Mar- animals, was cited for raising awareness kets, has been a reservist for 21 years, according to the article. He and his wife, internationally about the relationships Susan, a computer interface specialist for General Electric, have two grown chil- between people and animals. dren. Loew was a national leader in ani- To read the entire article, check the newspaper’s website at http:// mal welfare. He belonged to the boards www.timesunion.com. of directors of the Humane Society of
22 CORNELL VETERINARY MEDICINE vious Morris Award recipients, fourteen associate deans or department chairs, past presidents of every major veteri- nary organization, and many others. Mara This extraordinary nomination drive was spearheaded by Professor Emeritus Robert W. Kirk, DVM ’46, a lifelong friend and a former recipient of the award. Mara, who died in March 2003, was lauded by his nominators as extraordi- nary, visionary, a tireless advocate for the proper nutrition of pets, and one of the veterinary profession’s greatest am- bassadors, an icon in the veterinary
community. After graduating from Cor- Archives Cornell University nell he spent 28 years in private prac- tice in Huntington, New York before joining Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Inc. in Miller-Clark celebrates centennial 1979. In the earlier years of his career he made frequent appearances on radio As reported in the New York Times on September 21, the Miller-Clark Animal Hos- and television to share anecdotes and pital of Mamaroneck, New York celebrated 100 years of caring for animals in 2003. healthcare advice with pet owners. The veterinary practice is named for the partnership formed in 1953 between While at Hill’s he directed his efforts Cornellians Walter Miller, DVM ’26 and Robert Clark, DVM ’52, but its roots extend toward educating the veterinary profes- back 50 years earlier to the establishment of the Country Boarding Kennels by sion about the essential role of good nu- Miller’s father, veterinarian H. K. Miller. trition in promoting health and The elder Miller had started one of the nation’s earliest small-animal prac- longevity. tices in a Manhattan brownstone at 118 West 53rd Street, near Sixth Avenue, in The Morris Award, which Hill’s 1901. He built the kennel on his farm in Mamaroneck because he was taking so presents annually at the North Ameri- many clients’ pets home with him on the train. In 1925 he sold the Manhattan can Veterinary Conference, is named practice to his partner, C. P. Zepp, DVM ’19 and moved his entire operation to for the 1926 Cornell DVM who devel- Mamaroneck. His son Walter joined him the next year after graduating from Cornell. oped the Prescription Diet line of foods The younger Dr. Miller retired in 1967, two years after the arrival of Ellsworth manufactured under the Hill’s label. In Thorndike, VMD from the University of Pennsylvania. John Pinckney, another connection with the award, the com- Cornellian (DVM ’72), joined the practice in 1973. Clark retired in 1999 and moved pany donates $20,000 to Morris Ani- to Ithaca; Paul Amerling, a Ross University graduate, came on board that same mal Foundation in the name of the year. Through the years they have built up a client base that keeps them occupied honoree. with 7,000 patients. Some of those clients have been with them for 40 or 50 years. The Times Alfred M. Merritt, DVM ’63 is this year’s article quoted one of them, Gloria Crowley Markuson, as saying, “They take won- recipient of the Frank J. Milne Award derful care of the animals; they treat them like humans. And what’s also very nice of the American Association of Equine is they also take good care of the owners.” Practitioners. Merritt, who is the Apple- ton Endowed contributions to the understanding of ulcer syndrome and the potential role Professor in the equine stomach. As the awardee, of intense exercise and stress in causing Equine Stud- he was invited to deliver the the disease. He recommended changes ies at the Uni- conference’s Frank J. Milne State-of- in horse management, feeding, and versity of Flor- the-Art Lecture, which he devoted to a housing practices in order to reduce the ida, was hon- discussion of the physiology of the animals’ stress and risk of developing ored for his Merritt equine stomach and of equine gastric disease.
SPRING 2004 23 would from funding it at a level that was quality of our programs will suffer in the only adequate. next decade unless some measure of The excellence of the Cornell Uni- funding is restored. versity Hospital for Animals is a source For our part, we continue to build of great benefit to the State of New on efficiencies and good management York. In addition to providing a wide practices that started with the amalgam- range of specialized clinical services to ation of departments several years ago. the people of the state and a fertile en- To achieve better decision-making at endnote vironment for advancing knowledge of the level of the end user, we have also animal health care, the hospital and its put resources, as well as the responsi- activities form the basis for our entire bility for managing those resources, into veterinary medical teaching program. the hands of individual departments The outstanding physical plant, and units. In partnership with the Uni- provided through generous state fund- versity, we have instituted procedures ing and opened in 1996, is peopled by to reduce overlapping administrative some of the profession’s most gifted and efforts at various levels of the institu- talented faculty and staff. We have in- tion. These changes have not been easy, creased the hospital’s specialty offerings but they have positioned the College in recent years to include a full-service to take advantage of clinical and re- oncology unit, exotic animal medicine, search opportunities that align with dentistry, alternative therapies, and sig- other university priorities. nificantly expanded sections of cardi- Along with cost-cutting, we have ology, large animal surgery, small animal been working to develop long-term so- surgery, and small-animal emergency lutions for increasing revenue, particu- and critical-care medicine. Under the larly in the area of fundraising. The able leadership of Assistant Dean financial support of individuals who Bonita Voiland, the hospital has re- value the work we do has always been vamped its administrative structure and vital not only in addressing immediate Alexis Wenski-Roberts/Image Alexis Wenski-Roberts/Image Lab heightened efficiency and customer ser- needs but in providing stable income vice. These improvements in breadth in perpetuity. Long-term investment he cost of college and professional and quality, achieved through long years provides an essential buffer in times of education is high, and getting of planning and gradual implementa- economic retrenchment, and we will be T higher. In times of economic tion, have resulted in a nearly 50-per- working to increase our endowment stress, preserving public funding for cent increase in caseload over the past substantially. higher education may seem an six years. Cornell’s veterinary students, Thanks to the great generosity of unaffordable luxury to some. Cornell whose education is our fundamental the Maurice R. and Corinne P. President Jeffrey Lehman views it as a concern and purpose, are extraordinar- Greenberg Foundation, we are closer to necessity, as he recently explained in an ily well served by the experience they realizing the purchase of the magnetic address to the members of the State gain in this finest of referral teaching resonance imaging equipment that is so Senate Finance Committee and the hospitals. critical to our neurology and oncology State Assembly Ways and Means Com- Excellence is expensive, however, services. Our outlook has also been mittee. In addition to noting that edu- particularly in an era of burgeoning brightened in the past year or so by the cated people contribute to economic technological advances and unprec- exceptional philanthropy of Isidor and progress and “enable the continued evo- edented competition for top clinical Sylvia Sprecker, Patricia Cornwell, the lution of civil society,” Lehman asserted faculty. The cost of clinical programs estates of Eleanor Gillis, Ethel Phipps, that the state reaps many times the re- and equipment has increased even more and Edna Emerson, and several others. turns from investing in the greatness of rapidly than veterinary education in We are deeply grateful for their gener- New York’s university system that it general. At the same time, unfortu- osity, as we are for the sustaining sup- nately, the economic challenges that port of all of our contributing alumni have faced the State of New York, par- and friends. They are the foundation on ticularly since 9/11, have had wide- which we are building our future. spread impact. For Cornell University, the state’s budget woes have brought a substantial decrease in operating sup- port. Even with maximized efficiency and a strategic narrowing of focus, the Dean of the College
24 CORNELL VETERINARY MEDICINE comingevents
MARCH 26–28 96th Annual Cornell Veterinary Conference APRIL 17 38th Annual Open House MAY 29 CVM Hooding Ceremony 30 Cornell University Commencement
JUNE 1–5 Smith Kilborne Program 9–12 American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Minneapolis, MN) 10–12 Reunion Weekend
JULY 24–28 AVMA Annual Conference (Philadelphia, PA) 30 16th Annual Fred Scott Feline Symposium
SEPTEMBER 23–25 American Association of Bovine Practitioners
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