Andre (Moul) Ross: One of the Few Women to Become a Veterinarian During World War II

Posted May 24, 2012.

By Dr. Donald F. Smith, Cornell University
This historical blog is in recognition of the 150th anniversary 
of the American Veterinary Medical Association (1863-2013)

Seven women were admitted to Cornell’s veterinary college in 1935 and 1936. This represented about eight percent of those classes, an astonishingly high proportion for that period. However, by the end of the decade, fewer women were admitted to Cornell and only one in the class that arrived in 1939.

Andre (Moul) Ross, Cornell DVM 1943
Graduation Photo, Cornell University

Andre Moul was raised in Gloversville, NY. While helping deliver piglets from the sow of a family friend, she became hooked on the idea of becoming a veterinarian. Despite her mother’s encouragement to become a teacher, a nurse, or a secretary, 11-year-old Andre couldn’t be dissuaded from wanting to become a veterinarian. 

“Back in the thirties, girls seldom went to college”, Dr. Ross said in a 1998 interview. “The belief was that educating a girl to become a veterinarian robbed a worthy boy of his education as the girl would most likely marry and never practice”.

With her mother’s support, Andre enrolled in Cornell’s agricultural college in 1938 for her requisite year of pre-veterinary education. A year later, she began her veterinary studies as the sole woman in the class of 40 students. 

The horse (not dog) was still the principal species used in first-year dissection classes. Clinical experiences during the final two years were divided equally between the small and large animal clinics. Though there were occasional class exercises in which she was not allowed to participate because of her gender, she shared most learning activities with her male colleagues. 

Andre (Moul) Ross, the only woman in Cornell's Veterinary Class of 1943
with four of her classmates and an equine patient.
Photo provided by Ms. Carol Shank, 2012

Male veterinary students from several classes
in uniform during WWII at Cornell University
Photo by Cornell University.

Cornell was transformed into a quasi-military base during WWII with most male veterinary students enrolled in some form of military training. Summers were used for instruction to accelerate the curriculum and enable the male veterinarians to be commissioned upon graduation.

In May 1942, Andre married a recently-graduated engineering student named Donald Gunn Ross, Jr. They had met as members of the Cornell Radio Guild where he was the chief engineer and she the sound effects engineer. Andre moved from the dorm where single students were required to live, to married student housing.

“For nearly 15 years after graduation, I took on the role of wife and mother”, Andre wrote in 1998. Then she gradually returned to veterinary medicine, first as part-time small animal practitioner, and eventually as practice owner. She finished her career in Stone Ridge, New York until her retirement in 1993.

The author is grateful to Dr. Ross' daughter, Ms. Carol Shank, for providing stories and photographs of her mother. The quotations of Dr. Ross are from an article she wrote, "On Becoming a Vet", Blue Stone Press, October 16, 1998. Dr.  Ross died in 2006.

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

I want to be a Veterinarian: History of Veterinary Medicine 1940-1970.

By Donald F. Smith, Cornell University

Posted May 5, 2011



This historical blog is in recognition of the 150th anniversary 
of the American Veterinary Medical Association (1863-2013).

By 1940, only ten veterinary colleges in the United States remained open. Twenty others had closed since 1900, including those at Harvard, New York University, and George Washington University.

World War II created a huge need for veterinarians to serve in food inspection domestically and overseas, for development of vaccines anticipated in enemy attacks, and to accompany pack mules in combat with Japanese forces on the rugged Burma trail.

Male Studenta in Cornell's Veterinary Classes of 1943, 1944 and 1945 were members of the Army Specialized Training Progam.  Courtesy of Cornell University.

Veterinarians were in such short supply that colleges operated year-round. Dr. Morris Povar remembers the experience: Going to veterinary school during the summer was a hideous experience. The room must have been 90 degrees; no air.

After the war, hundreds of thousands of battle-weary veterans returned home and many wanted to become veterinarians, but only a handful of states had programs to educate DVMs. In Minnesota, it was the insistence of veterans with strong political ties who forced the legislature to establish a new veterinary program. In all, seven new veterinary colleges opened between 1944-48.

Glen Nelson was in the inaugural class at Minnesota. Most of us were veterans. We had a B17 pilot who was shot flying over France, a B29 pilot who flew over Nagasaki the day after THE bomb. I was a tank officer under Patten in North Africa. We had a POW, and another who was shot up pretty badly on Saipan. Going to the student center was like sitting around the American Legion Club.

Prior to 1945, only about 70 African-Americans had ever received DVM degrees, mostly from northern univerities like Iowa State, Kansas State and Cornell. But that all changed when Frederick Douglass Patterson, DVM, PhD became the third president of Tuskegee Institute and not only founded a veterinary college that continues to this day, but also was the principal force in establishing the United Negro College Fund.

Women, though sporadically admitted to veterinary colleges since 1910, were vastly underrepresented in the post war years when so many men squeezed them out of the few slots previously available.

Even through the 1960s, women were evaluated differently than men. Linda Reeve Peddie sat through her grueling interview at Cornell in 1961, They asked me if I cooked, if I sewed, if I danced. Did I date?  And then the question, ‘If you were to marry someone who had a vocation out in the desert somewhere and there weren’t any animals, just what would you do with this degree?’ I did not think there was a prayer that I would be accepted.

Fulfilling the desire to become a veterinarian is the dominant theme of my second article in a four-part series on veterinary education in the United States (1940-70). It is published in the Spring 2011 issue of the Journal of Veterinary Medical Education, Volume 38 (1), pages 84-99, and should be available in veterinary or medical libraries, or online services provided by these libraries.

For those how do not have access to the article and would like a copy, please contact me at the following e-mail address.

Comments are welcome at dfs6@cornell.edu

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: A Tribute to Daniel Skelton, DVM, Cornell 1939

By Donald F. Smith, DVM, Cornell University
Posted February 28, 2011



This historical blog is in recognition of the 150th anniversary 
of the American Veterinary Medical Association (1863-2013).

Dr. Daniel Skelton, DVM
Photo by Cornell University

As Black History Month comes to an official close for 2011, I wish to recognize Dr. Daniel Skelton, who died earlier this month at age 98. He is believed to have been the last surviving African-American veterinarian to have received his education during the Great Depression.

Daniel was born in Tennessee on September 10, 1912. He attended undergraduate college at LeMoyne College in Memphis, one of the Historic Black Colleges, majoring in chemistry and biology. Seeing his interest in medicine and animals, university president Frank Sweeney encouraged him to become a veterinarian. However, with no veterinary colleges available to him in the segregated south, President Sweeney suggested he move to New York to establish residency and then apply to Cornell.

Dr. Skelton described what happened next during my 2008 interview with him, I graduated on a Tuesday night [in 1934], then Mrs. Sweeney took me directly to the train station and I was washing dishes in Brooklyn 48 hours later. I wrote to Cornell’s veterinary college, but was rejected. I applied two more times, but to no avail. Discouraged, I called President Sweeney. “Don’t do anything”, he told me, “I will look after it”. Within a week, I was accepted.

Dan was a popular and well-respected student among the 40 members of the Class of 1939. After graduation, he joined the federal food inspection service and was assigned to a meat packing plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was a small town, mostly white, and the people referred to me as a ‘fly in cream’. After 18 months, I was promoted to supervisor over the objection of some of my colleagues. One of the workers in another part of the plant said to his buddy who was assigned to me, making sure I heard his comment, “How do you like a N____ supervising you? What is the world coming to?

Dr. Skelton was transferred to Wichita, Kansas, in 1942. Though still a segregated community, he and his wife were much happier living in the larger city and they remained there for the rest of his career. He eventually became circuit supervisor, responsible for food safety at 22 packing houses and supervising veterinary inspectors throughout central Kansas.

Fewer than 70 African-Americans received DVM degrees from northern schools before a veterinary college was established at Tuskegee Institute in 1945. Several of these early graduates, and also many of the graduates from Tuskegee during the 1950s and 1960s, worked in the federal meat inspection service. Their legacy in helping assure a safe supply of food to the American public (and also the military) is an important aspect of African-American veterinary history.

Dr. Skelton was an important part of that legacy. The transcript from my interview with him, including a decription of his student experiences at Cornell and his family history may be found at  http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/14963/4/Skelton%20Daniel%20'39%20BioInt.pdf.

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

The Veterinarian who Judged Best In Show at the Westminster

By Donald F. Smith, DVM, Cornell University
Posted February 13, 2011



This historical blog is in recognition of the 150th anniversary 
of the American Veterinary Medical Association (1863-2013).



In 1938, Josephine Deubler was the first woman veterinary graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. Sixty years later, she was the first veterinarian to judge Best In Show at the Westminster Kennel Club at Madison Square Garden.

Dr. Josephine Deubler
Photo from Univ Penn

A lover of animals and raised in a family of veterinarians―including her father, brother, uncle and two cousins― it was only natural that she would also seek a veterinary degree. However, it was not that simple during the 1930s as fewer than 40 women had graduated from veterinary colleges in the U.S., and none had graduated from Penn. In addition, she had a serious hearing impairment.

Dr. Deubler not only earned her V.M.D., but stayed at the University of Pennsylvania and received her PhD degree in 1944. She was the first woman on the veterinary school’s faculty and spent her entire professional career teaching and doing research.

"Jo", as she was affectionately known in the dog world, bred and raised Dandie Dinmont Terriers. Licensed as an American Kennel Club judge in 1962, she worked her way up the judging circuit reaching its acme at the Garden in February 1998. She selected a Norwich Terrier as the winner.

Though she officially retired in 1987,  Dr. Deubler remained active in veterinary and dog fancier circles until her death two years ago at age 92.

Despite the many veterinary tributes which were bestowed upon her, Dr. Deubler considers her greatest honor being selected to judge Best In Show at the Garden.

Dr. Smith invites comments at dfs6@cornell.edu

When Washington, D.C. had Two Veterinary Colleges

By Donald F. Smith, DVM, Cornell University
Posted February 12, 2011



This historical blog is in recognition of the 150th anniversary 
of the American Veterinary Medical Association (1863-2013).



After 33 years of operation and educating almost 500 veterinarians, the United States College of Veterinary Surgeons in Washington, D.C. shut its doors forever in 1927.

“The passing of the horse sounded the death knell of the veterinary profession”, was the opening line of the June 16^th 1927 article as The Washington Post announced the closure.

The other institution was the National Veterinary College, established in 1892 by Cornell University graduate, Dr. Daniel Salmon (the man credited with discovering the Salmonella organism). The college later became part of Columbian University, which was renamed George Washington University in 1904.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: African-American Veterinarians at Cornell 1910-1920

Posted February 8, 2014 in honor of Black History Month
Readers are encouraged to see original story at www.veritasdvmblog.com 

Guest Author: Jennifer Morrissey, DVM

Editor’s Note: The first two African-American veterinarians in the US graduated from Harvard (1889) and the University of Pennsylvania (1907).1 It is unclear how many more African-American veterinarians graduated in that era, though Kansas State University had a graduate in 1912,2 and there were apparently three early veterinarians at Tuskegee circa 1910.3

While a veterinary student at Cornell (2009-2013), Dr. Jennifer Morrissey took an interest in the history of early African-American veterinary students at Cornell. She suspected that the previously-accepted university reports failed to accurately identify some of the black students who graduated in the early years, prior to the well-known Aubrey Robinson in 1920. With a determination and yearning for clues that was really quite remarkable, she deciphered class photos with tenacity, corresponded with experts in the field, and spent many hours in Cornell’s Kroch Library. Morrissey was eventually able to identity six black graduates between 1910 and 1919. She was proudly able to verify that Cornell’s contribution to educating African-American veterinarians this early in the profession’s history was unprecedented.

Donald F. Smith

Kirksey L. Curd, a native of Kentucky, was Cornell’s first African-American veterinary graduate. After receiving his DVM in 1912, he entered the medical school at the University of Pennsylvania and spent the remainder of his professional career as a practicing physician at the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia.

The next graduate, Garret Singleton ’14, was an Ithaca native whose mother was famous for creating a haven for black students in her house near the Cornell campus.4 After graduation, he had several jobs in regulatory medicine, including working for the Department of Health in Los Angeles. He eventually opened a small animal clinic in Venice, California, and was also an Assistant Humane Officer in the area. A musician, he was a member of a local symphony orchestra.

The Waller Brothers: Owen M. Waller, Sr., M.D., and his wife raised their family in Brooklyn, NY, where he was one of the founders of the NAACP. Two of their sons, Ray and Owen, Jr., attended Cornell and became veterinarians. Dr. Ray Benson Potter Waller ’17 practiced veterinary medicine in Harlem, NY, and also worked at the New York City Department of Health.

Owen Waller, Jr. entered Cornell with two other veterinary students. The three represented the largest number of male African-American veterinary students ever to graduate from Cornell in a single year (1918). Owen was a staunch supporter of the right of Black students to participate in varsity athletics. One of his influential essays was entitled, “The Colored Man as an Athlete”.

One of the reasons Owen was so interested in athletics was that his classmates, W. H. Seabrook (an Ithaca native) and Abram J. Jackson, Jr., were stars in baseball and track. All three men had successful veterinary careers, Drs. Waller and Seabrook in private practices in Brooklyn, and Dr. Jackson with the federal meat inspection service.

The last African-American to enter Cornell’s veterinary college between 1910 and 1920 was Aubrey E. Robinson, who became a large animal practitioner in New Jersey. http://veterinarylegacy.blogspot.com/2011/01/notable-african-american-veterinarians.html

Ms. Jennifer K. Morrissey was a 2010 research assistant for the Veterinary Legacy Project. https://www.vet.cornell.edu/legacy/.  This portion of her research will be presented at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine on Thursday, February 10^rd, in honor of Black History Month.

Dr. Smith invites comments at dfs6@cornell.edu

NOT FOR US ALONE: The 150th Anniversary of the Veterinary Profession in the United States

By Donald F. Smith, Cornell University

January 29, 2011

This historical blog is in recognition of the 150th anniversary 
of the American Veterinary Medical Association (1863-2013).

The first veterinary college opened in France 250 years ago, but it took another century before the profession was formally established in the United States. 

The year was 1863, and the place was New York City. Forty veterinarians from the northeastern states met on June 9-10 and formed the United States Veterinary Medical Association (USVMA).

Why is there no Veterinary College in New York City?

By Dr. Donald F. Smith, Cornell University
Posted January 7, 2011 (reposted July 9, 2012).

This historical blog is in recognition of the 150th anniversary 

of the American Veterinary Medical Association (1863-2013).

Veterinary medicine is filled with strange anecdotes and quirks of history. For example:

• What happened to the four veterinary colleges that once existed in New York City – and the ones in Chicago, Washington, San Francisco and many other cities?

• When and why did veterinary colleges separate from medical schools and move to the country?
• Why did the veterinary profession almost collapse between 1920 and 1925, when much of the rest of the country was experiencing the “Roaring Twenties”?
• Why did Cornell’s veterinary college―that had a written policy of favoring farm boys over city boys―admit a larger proportion of urban-raised Jews during the 1930s than the medical college at Cornell and the most prominent undergraduate colleges of the period?
• Why did the veterinary colleges at Harvard University and New York University (which had state funding) both close?

         These and many other questions are answered in an article on the history of veterinary medicine just published in the Journal of Veterinary Medical Education. [J Vet Med Educ 37 (4) p 317-327]. Based in large part from first person interviews with veterinarians (or close family members) who graduated in the 1920s and 1930s, this article provides answers to many questions that have never even previously been asked.
         This is the first in a series that summarizes the content of a course in veterinary history that I teach for veterinary students at Cornell. Three more articles have since been published and they describe the progress in veterinary education to the present. 

An abstract of the first article can be located at  http://jvmeonline.metapress.com/content/t17226626n444666/?p=b1ad61e374e64b89ae5363f40fc6dc84&pi=1
A full copy can be obtained from the publisher, library access, or by contacting me at the address below.

Dr. Smith invites comments at dfs6@cornell.edu