A Brief History of The American College of Veterinary Pathologists, 1961–1988

Abstract

It being a popular tradition to designate the end of each decade as a special occasion, and 2009 being the 60th year of the official establishment of The American College of Veterinary Pathologists (ACVP), it is fitting to review the more significant highlights in its development from its humble beginnings to its present highly acclaimed status in the discipline of veterinary pathology throughout the world. The early history of the organization from 1947 to its charter year, 1949, and from then to 1960, was reported in great detail by the founder of The ACVP, Dr. T.C. Jones, in an article published in 1990 (see Vet Pathol 27:468–520, 1990). The annual meeting and the examination for admission to the College initially were held at the University of Chicago, because of that city’s central location and low cost of accommodation and as a corollary to the US Livestock Sanitary Association’s Conference for Research Workers in Animal Diseases. This conference took place at the time of Thanksgiving. Although not the best time to be away from home, the time and place remained the same, in spite of strenuous objections by families of the participants, until 1969. In that year, Presidentelect Dr. Paul Newberne vowed to move the meeting and examination for 1970 out of Chicago. With the support of like-minded members he succeeded in having them held in December in New Orleans, which had been chosen by Dr. Bob Sauer. For about eight years thereafter, Bob was responsible for finding cities that had a hotel or convention center with facilities suitable for the conference and the examination. At some of the chosen venues the facilities for the examination were less than optimal. This was remedied when the site for the examination was moved to Iowa State University at Ames in 1978, where it has remained ever since. For each annual meeting through 1996, a specific theme was chosen. Initially, the emphasis was on gross and microscopic pathology for the meeting and the examination. In those early years we had few pathologists who, shall we say, were regarded as experts on the pathology of specific organs or systems. To remedy this, a medical pathologist who was well known as an expert in the main topic of the meeting was invited to present a half-day seminar at the conclusion of the program. These guests proved to be excellent teachers who helped immeasurably to enhance our knowledge. Two such notables were Dr. Hans Popper and Dr. Zimmerman, experts respectively on the liver and eye. In the days when there were relatively few members, the annual business meetings were extremely lively affairs with some heated and passionate discussions. Everyone took part and offered many and varied opinions on each subject on the agenda. One particularly memorable meeting was when we were discussing whether or not to create a separate section of the examination for clinical pathology. It seems somewhat ridiculous now that we argued back and forth as to which was correct: ‘‘veterinary clinical pathology’’ or ‘‘clinical veterinary pathology.’’ Those who were there will recall the stentorian voice of, now deceased member, Dr. Charlie Barron as he pontificated on his view, which was the one that prevailed. As the number of members grew it became evident that the duties of the secretary were becoming too onerous for one person. Various ways to solve this matter were discussed by the Council, one of them being the hiring of a management company to take over the administrative duties, and especially those that involved the finances of the College and the organization of the annual meeting. In 1987 as President, I decided we should search for a company that might be interested; one of them was Allen Press, a Kansas City publisher that had taken over publication of the journal. It seemed to be a good choice but not being able to come to an agreement in the Council, further discussion was abandoned for that year. It continued in 1988 during the presidency of Dr. John Shadduck when negotiations began with the Talley Management Group, with whom a contract was signed. This Group became fully functional in 1990 under the presidency of Dr. Oscar Fletcher, who remarked in his presidential address, that I was the one responsible for bringing our group ‘‘kicking and screaming’’ to this point in its history. Vet Pathol 46:1092–1094 (2009)