Legendary Tuskegee Veterinarian Dr. Eugene W. Adams Passes

By Donald F. Smith, DVM, DACVS

February 21, 2016

Dr. Eugene W. Adams of Tuskegee University, one of that school's pioneers and most distinguished faculty, died at his home this morning, February 21, 2016. A faculty member for 38 years, and the author of the seminal book on the history of Tuskegee’s veterinary school, Adams was a true legend.

Adams received his DVM from Kansas State University and joined the Tuskegee faculty in 1947. Initially a member of the Department of Large Animal Medicine and Surgery, he later assisted in teaching physiology and pharmacology. Shortly after his appointment to department chair (1955), he began graduate work at Cornell University and received his PhD in 1961. Adams later served as associate dean, and finished his career as vice provost and director of the university’s international programs.  

Dr. Eugene W. Adams, Tuskegee University
Photo by the Author, 2012

I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Dr. Adams while visiting Tuskegee in September 2012. Already well into his 90s, he regaled me with stories of the early history of Tuskegee as the young faculty struggled to establish the school and gain AVMA accreditation. He credited the warm relationship between Cornell's William A. Hagan who was dean at the time, and Tuskegee's Dean T. S. Williams for providing institutional advice and guidance. Hagan and Williams had much in common, having received their DVM degrees from Kansas State University. Hagan later became the chair of the AVMA's first review team for Tuskegee that eventually recommended its full accreditation in 1954. 

It was Hagan’s support and encouragement that facilitated Adams traveled to Cornell in the late 1950s for graduate study. Dr. Adams reminisced about his Cornell experience, how he never recalled hearing racial slur nor a negative comment from anyone at the university. He also credited Cornell’s administration with providing a research stipend that equaled his fellowship from Tuskegee. Together, the two sources of support provided him a salary equivalent to what he had as a full faculty member back at Tuskegee. 

Dr. Eugene and Mrs. Myrtle Adams, Tuskegee University
Photo by the author, 2012

In addition, because of the added financial support, Mrs. Adams was able to join him after his first year in Ithaca, and they were able to move from a rented room on Linden Avenue where he had lived alone, to the more comfortable Cascadilla Hall. 

Dr. Smith invites comments at dfs6@cornell.edu.

CELEBRATING MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., DAY AND TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY

By Donald F. Smith, DVM, DACVS

Posted January 18, 2015

Author’s Comment: Centennial-Year tributes to the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M University will continue tomorrow with installment three of the six-part series. Today, we honor Tuskegee University’s veterinary heritage.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is an ideal time for veterinarians to also celebrate the rich heritage that Tuskegee University has brought to our profession.

In the mid 1940s, Frederick Douglass Patterson DVM, MS, PhD founded the college at a time when there were only 70 African-American veterinarians in the entire country. They had been educated over the previous half century at several institutions, most notably Kansas State, Cornell, Iowa State and Penn.  

Tuskegee admitted its first white students in the mid 1960s, and is now the most racial and ethnically-diverse veterinary institution in the country.

Take a moment to ponder the breath and impact of just a few of the most notable Tuskegee DVM graduates. Among them are:

• Rear Admiral Roscoe Moore ’69, the highest-ranking veterinarian in all the uniformed services, who served as former assistant surgeon general of the US Public Health Service;
• The three alumni currently serving as deans in US veterinary colleges. At ten percent of all the deans currently appointed, this is the highest percentage of all alumni bodies. They are Phillip Nelson ’79 (Western University of the Health Sciences), Ruby Perry ’77 (Tuskegee) and Willie Reed ’78 (Purdue);
• Michael Blackwell ’75, who was veterinary dean at the University of Tennessee (2000-2008). Prior to that, he was chief of staff to the Office of the Surgeon General;
• Ted Cohn ’75, AVMA president in 2014-15;
• Jan Strother ’86, who served as AVMA vice president (2010-12) and is a now candidate for AVMA president-elect;
• Andrea Dennis-LaVigne ’82, who recently served as president of the Connecticut Veterinary Medical Association;
• Linda Jacobson ’71, who was president of the New York State Veterinary Medical Society in 2012, and before that was president of the North American Veterinary Conference (now Community).

Tuskegee’s veterinary history and accomplishments are worthy of recognition throughout the year, but it is especially appropriate to pause on this special day that also honors the life and impact of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Ruby Perry Appointed Tuskegee Dean

Donald F. Smith, Cornell University

Dr. Ruby Perry has been selected as dean of Tuskegee University's College of Veterinary Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health. Her appointment was announced yesterday by university president, Dr. Brian L. Johnson who is quoted as saying that Dr. Perry "is truly the best person at one of the best times in Tuskegee's long and prestigious history". (1)  

Dean Perry will not have to move into the dean's office as she has served as interim dean since mid 2014, during which she has made a major mark on the college. She has also begun to establish herself as a significant force among her colleague deans in the US and Canada.

With Dr. Perry's appointment, there are now three Tuskegee graduates serving as deans simultaneously. The others are at Purdue (Dr. Willie Reed) and Western University of the Health Sciences (Dr. Phillip Nelson).  Their friendship extends from their college days as they attended Tuskegee at the same time, being graduates of the classes of 1977 to 1979. 

Congratulations and best wishes to Dean Perry.

(1) Tuskegee University (press release): New permanent san of the College of Veterinary Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health; Historic appointment of Tuskegee University alumna, Mar 30, 2015

Five Tuskegee University Veterinary Graduates from the 1970s Become Deans

By Donald F. Smith, Cornell University
January 15, 2015

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr Day

Patterns of leadership in veterinary medicine fascinate me.  Why, for example, are there so many foreign-educated veterinary deans and department chairs in our country’s veterinary colleges? (1,2) Why are there so few women deans? (3)

Now, a question that I’ve also pondered for some time: why have so many Tuskegee DVM graduates from the 1970s attained dean positions? There have been fewer than 100 permanent dean appointments in the AAVMC-member US veterinary colleges in the last three decades, yet five who graduated during the 1970s are Tuskegee graduates. All are African-American.

"Lifting the Veil"
Statue of Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee University
Photo by the author, 2012

During African American History Month in February, I shall share with readers some of the responses I received from these deans about what inspired them to achieve such distinction.

But first, who are these five leaders? 

Alfonza Atkinson served as the fifth veterinary dean at Tuskegee University from 1999 until his untimely passing in 2004. Also an undergraduate at Tusksegee, Dr. Atkinson received his DVM in 1973. He was subsequently awarded a MPH (1988) and a PhD from the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Environmental Health Science-Environmental Toxicology Program (1995).  Dr. Atkinson was a commissioned veterinarian at the Birmingham (Alabama) Racing Commission, and also a supervisory veterinary medical officer in the Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service in Tallahassee, Florida. He returned to Tuskegee as a member of the faculty in the departments of Microbiology and Biomedical Sciences. He was associate dean for administration and interim dean before being appointed dean of the college.

Michael Blackwell, the son of a graduate of Tuskegee's second DVM class, was appointed dean at the University of Tennessee in 2000. He was the first African-American dean of a majority veterinary college. Dr. Blackwell operated a private veterinary practice following graduation in 1975. He then entered public service, working for the FDA for 20 years in both human and veterinary branches, and rising to the position of deputy director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine.  In 1994 he was appointed chief veterinarian of the U.S. Public Health Service, and in 1997 promoted to the rank of Assistant Surgeon General (Rear Admiral) of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service. Dr. Blackwell was appointed chief of staff of the Office of the Surgeon General in 1999. From there, he moved to Knoxville and served as dean for more than several years.  Dr. Blackwell, who also holds the MPH degree, is now Senior Director of Veterinary Policy for the Humane Society of the United States.

Phillip Nelson received his undergraduate degree from Jackson State University where his father, a Tuskegee graduate with a degree in Food Service Administration, was Assistant Vice President for Business Affairs. After earning his DVM from Tuskegee in 1979, he developed his clinical skills in internal medicine at Mississippi State University, and later pursued a PhD in immunology and biotechnology at North Carolina State University.  His research activities primarily focused on feline infections as biological models for human HIV, and the development of lymphocytic immunity in the dog and cat. Dr. Nelson returned to Tuskegee as head of the Department of Small Animal Medicine and Surgery, then in 1994 moved back to Mississippi State as associate dean, a position he held for over a decade. He then moved to Western University of the Health Sciences in Pomona, California and became Executive Associate Dean of the Pre-clinical Curriculum. Two years later, in 2007, he succeeded Dr. Shirley Johnston as the second dean of the college. Dean Nelson serves on various committees of the AVMA and AAVMC, with a special interest in diversity issues as they relate to the veterinary profession.

A board-certified radiologist, Ruby Perry is interim dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health Sciences at Tuskegee University. She is the first female African American veterinary dean in the United States.  Dr. Perry had previously served as associate dean for academic affairs since 2007. After undergraduate studies at Belhaven College and Jackson State University, Dr. Perry received her BS and DVM from Tuskegee in 1976 and 1977, respectively. She initially pursued a clinical career, completing the veterinary radiology residency at Michigan State University and an MS degree (Microbiology).  Dr. Perry’s administrative experience includes section chief of veterinary radiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University, acting chair of the department of small animal medicine, surgery and radiology at Tuskegee University, interim chief of staff in the office of the president at Tuskegee University. A decorated teacher and mentor, she has been recognized for her leadership in professional and community service. She is a former president of the Tuskegee Veterinary Medical Association.

Willie Reed graduated from Tuskegee in 1978, then attended Purdue where he earned a PhD in veterinary pathology. A diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists and charter diplomate of the American College of Poultry Veterinarians, Dr. Reed served for several years on the Purdue faculty in the avian diagnostic services assuming increasing administrative responsibilities, and was eventually recruited to Director of the Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory (4) at Michigan State University (1990). He was subsequently named Chair of the Department of Pathobiology and Diagnostic Investigation. Dr. Reed returned to Purdue in 2008 as dean, a position he currently holds. Reed has held several other major leadership positions in veterinary medicine, including President of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC), president of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD), and chair of the AVMA’s Council on Research. He was appointed as a member of the Board of Directors of Zoetis Inc. in 2014.

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(1) Smith, Donald F. Foreign-Born Deans of Veterinary Medicine. Perspectives in Veterinary Medicine. December  5, 2014.

(2) Smith, Donald F. Education of a Dean. Perspectives in Veterinary Medicine. July 7, 2013.

(3) Smith, Donald F. and Julie Kumble. Mentoring as a Career Factor: Six US Women Veterinary Deans Reflect. Perspectives in Veterinary Medicine. September 12, 2013.

(4) Now called the Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health  

In the 70th Year Since its Founding, a Tuskegee Alumnus will become AVMA President

Donald F. Smith, Cornell University
July 21, 2014

Editor’s Note: Continuing my episodic series on AVMA presidents, I present a story of Dr. Ted Cohn, who will be installed as the 2014-15 AVMA president on July 29th. In response to a tribute to Tuskegee University posted last January,1 Ted told me how proud he was to have been a graduate of that college, and how especially honored he was that I had cited him as an alumnus. This led to more substantive communications with both Ted and his wife, Becky. This is the story of their Tuskegee years (1971-75).2

Donald F. Smith

Dr. Cohn was but one of several white students in the 1971 entering class at Tuskegee. Six years earlier, the School had matriculated its first white male student and the following year, the first white woman was admitted. In his book, The Legacy, Dr. Eugene Adams summarized the feelings of the era.

There was an uneventful acceptance of these students by their classmates and teachers. No special arrangements were made for these first non-black students and no media publicity was accorded their entrance or graduation.3

Ted was unaware of this demographic change because the advertising brochure that the school provided did not contain any photos of white students so he really wasn’t sure that he would not be the only white student present.

Tuskegee University DVM Class of 1975 Photo, with Dean W.C. Bowie. One of Dr. Cohn’s classmates (Dr. Michael I. Blackwell, top row) would later become dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Tennessee

(Photo provided by Dr. Ted Cohn, 2014)

Ted’s decision to attend Tuskegee was partly pragmatic, because his home state of Arkansas had just established a new regional plan to allocate two positions to the university. But his decision was also based upon his core values of social justice:

While in Jr. High, I had a read a biography of George Washington Carver―[born into slavery, he later became the first head of Tuskegee’s agricultural department]―and I was inspired by Carver’s life and accomplishments. At the time I actually told my mother, who had been active in the civil rights movement in Arkansas a decade earlier, that I wanted to go to college at Tuskegee.

Dr. Cohn found Tuskegee to be a “great place with a wonderful family atmosphere, caring faculty and administration.” The town was quiet and there was not a lot to do except to study, so that helped unite the class from almost the first day. Ted said the classmates got along well and treated each other with respect, understanding, and good humor, despite the occasional friction that is present among any group of students. Pig roasts, hosted by many classmates but especially inspired by the Caribbean students, were among the most popular extracurricular events and everyone gladly participated.

Apartment rented by Ted and Becky Cohn in Tuskegee (1971-75)

(This photo, provided by Dr. Cohn, was taken in 2014)

Though some students―both white and black―chose to live in Auburn which was 20 miles away, Ted and his wife, Becky, found an apartment in Tuskegee, close to campus. He had grown up in Little Rock, which at the time did not have a huge population (130,000), but living in this small, rural southern town provided a new environment for the Cohn’s.

The towns of Tuskegee and Tuskegee Institute were contiguous and had a population of about 12,000 people, and the students, faculty, and administration probably accounted for about half of them. There were just two grocery stores and a couple of small mom- and pop-type convenience stores. The only fast food was the “Dairy King” and perhaps the “Chicken Coop.”

Although Tuskegee was over 80% African-American when he arrived, Ted remembers there was a white mayor, and that the first black mayor since reconstruction was elected the following year. The area was part of a still thriving “southern cotton culture” in which the vast majority of the land, businesses, and ensuing wealth was white-owned. Ted also recalled a monument commemorating the civil war with a statue of a confederate soldier in the town square.

With few exceptions, the community accepted the Cohn’s. Becky found a job as a dental assistant and later a hygienist at the VA hospital, just down the street from the veterinary school. As a “long hair,” Ted drew some attention,

I did raise some eyebrows and engender some concerns with a few of the white folks, particularly at the barbershop and once at a hardware store. Subsequently, Becky learned to cut my hair, and did so for the next eight years. I found another hardware store to meet my needs.

By virtue of Dr. Cohn’s ability to secure financial aid through a work study program, he was able to have substantive exposure to the clinics during evening, weekends, and over holiday and summer breaks from the time he was a first-year student. Though he spent a great deal of time cleaning kennels and horse stalls, and exercising and restraining patients, he also had frequent exposure to faculty, staff, and upper class students throughout his educational experience.

During the summer between his third and fourth years, Cohn worked for the United States Department of Agriculture in their nearby Auburn laboratory. He made friends with several Auburn veterinary students and even attended a few of their classes. That experience opened his eyes to some of the differences between the two schools (and towns), which at that time—unlike today—had minimal collaboration.

Dr. Cohn’s summary of life as one of the early white veterinary students at Tuskegee, 40 years ago, is a warm and encouraging testament to both the university and town, and also to Becky and himself.

Overall, living and going to school in Tuskegee was a unique and educational experience from many different aspects―one that certainly has helped to shape Becky and me into the people we are today. Admittedly, while compared to some of the other veterinary colleges, Tuskegee may have had some shortcomings in their facilities, the culture of the school―the caring personal touch of the faculty―ultimately made up for any deficiencies. Amongst the many lessons Tuskegee taught me, perhaps one of the most important, is that the effort you put into your education is much more important than where you go to school. With almost 39 years of veterinary experience behind me, I believe that even more today.

Dr. Michael Blackwell, whose father was a faculty member at Tuskegee, was one of Ted’s classmates. He later became Assistant Surgeon General and was Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Tennessee (2000-2008). “You will appreciate that our time as veterinary students was during the turbulent period of civil rights reform”, he told me. “It was clear that Ted wanted to be there [at Tuskegee] and seemed very comfortable with Black people or anyone else who appeared different.”4

Dr. Douglas Aspros, AVMA president in 2012-13, who has known Dr. Cohn for years, and also served with him on the Executive Board, had this to say about his friend and colleague, “Ted’s experiences as a student at Tuskegee are the foundation of who he is as a person as well as a veterinarian. It’s clear why he’s been the most determined advocate for diversity at AVMA, and throughout the profession, that I’ve known.”5

Dr. Theodore Cohn, AVMA President (2014-15)

(Photo provided by Dr. Cohn)

Dr. Cohn will become the first Tuskegee DVM graduate to receive the AVMA’s gavel of the presidency. What a fitting tribute for this, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the veterinary school at that institution.

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1 Smith, Donald F. A Tribute to Tuskegee. Perspectives in Veterinary Medicine. Jan 17, 2014.
2 Cohn, Theodore, DVM (President-elect, AVMA). Emails to Donald F. Smith (Cornell University), Feb 23, July 11, July 13, 2014. Unless otherwise noted, all of the quotations attributed to Dr. Cohn, as well as the information about his time in Tuskegee is contained in these email communications.
3 Adams, Eugene W. The Legacy. A History of the Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine. (Tuskegee: Media Center Press, 1995), 80.
4 Blackwell, Michael J., DVM, MPH (Assistant Surgeon General, USPHS (Ret.), Dean Emeritus, University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine). Email to Donald F. Smith (Cornell University), July 16, 2014.
5 Aspros, Douglas G., DVM (AVMA president, 2012-13). E-mail to Donald F. Smith (Cornell University), July 12, 2014.

Dr, Smith invites comments at dfs6@cornell.edu

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