Dr. Burr Nussdorfer, Sr. of Sparta - WVMA President 1959
Photo: Courtesy
of Dr. Bill Nussdorfer, son of Dr. Burr Nussdorfer.
The most important
achievement during my presidency was the establishment of a state medical
insurance program for our WVMA members through the Time Insurance Company in
Milwaukee. That was really a wonderful
time because we were admired by most of the other veterinary organizations in
other states. We had one of the best, if
not the best, insurance policies. Our
premiums were minuscule compared to today’s.
The second
was an issue about a rising concern with pregnancy work. There were two men, lay
persons, that were in the Madison area and did pregnancy
work on a regular basis. That was of concern because these men made monthly
visits to herds and they had extensive herds lined up in their programs. After attending the hearings in Madison, in
the final deliberations the veterinarian was not supported. It was decided that these men should be
allowed to continue.
Author’s comment: The above text was submitted by Dr. Bill Nussdorfer about
his dad’s comments as he remembered.
Personal Information
I graduated from Ohio State University in
1946. I was married in the interim between my
junior and
senior year in 1945. Upon graduation, Mary and I went to Croquet, Minnesota. We
stayed there for six months. I was born and raised in Ohio but always had a desire
to practice in a dairy state. Wisconsin was uppermost in my mind. We came to
West Bend, Wisconsin and were there for a little while. Since I had no license
to practice in Wisconsin and was not certified to do any TB or brucellosis
testing, I was placed in Viola. This was a very tiny community southeast of
LaCrosse. I did tuberculosis testing for two months under the supervision of
Dr. Harry O'Connell until I took the exam in December of 1946.
It so happened that one of my closest
friends in the graduating class at Ohio State was practicing in Concord, New
Hampshire. He felt that there was a good possibility that he and I could buyout
the practice in a short time. So we went to Concord on New Year's Day 1947 and
stayed only four months when we realized that things were just not going to
work out as we had hoped. We returned to Wisconsin and settled in Baraboo and
found housing to be very scarce. I rented a room for myself. My wife and
daughter went to stay with her folks in Evanston, Illinois.
Dr. Strait, who had been a long time
practitioner in Sparta, died the first part of May. The community was badly in
need of a veterinarian. I met with a number of people who said it would be a
good opportunity. I brought my better half over there. We came here toward the
end of May on a dark, gloomy, cold day. Even though it looked like a good
opportunity, my wife thought it was the end of the world. That was in 1947.
We've been here since 1947, been happy,
and have progressed in the practice now to where our son is in the practice. He
has a full-time veterinarian with him, Dr. Tripp, who has been with us for over
20 years and does only companion pet work. As of a year ago, they moved into a
beautiful new clinic one-half mile west of Sparta on Highway 16. I still go out
a little bit every month to three herds. If someone is sick or on vacation and
they need help, I am happy to do so.
WVMA
I have to admit I was pretty naive,
having just settled here in 1947. I was only 12 years into the state and had
been exposed somewhat to the WVMA. At that time it had 700 or 800 members. I
was a member of the Northwest Veterinary Association which centered in Eau
Claire. The association encompassed an area from Sparta, La Crosse and Tomah
all the way to Lake Superior and took in all of northwest Wisconsin. I had been
exposed to many of the old-time practitioners - Dr. Bert Wriggleworth in Eau
Claire, Dr. Bob Houck in Chippewa Falls, Dr. Lange in Barron, Dr. Andreason in
Menominee Falls, and many others. I was very surprised and certainly very naive
that I got nominated, in the first place, to be president of the WVMA and, of
course quite astonished when I was elected. My opponent was Dr. Fred Melke from
Milwaukee. He was a gentleman in his 50s or 60s at that time.
Interviewer
Dr. Metzig's comments - I have to make a comment here because I
think Burr is being very modest. At that time the WVMA was
basically in the control of Dr. Richards, who was secretary. Dr. Harry O 'Connell was very influential and determined
who ran for office. The executive
board, at that time, always had a nominating committee, and they nominated
Melke. This was the first time
that some member from the floor decided that it was inappropriate to have just one candidate presented as
was somewhat of a revolt that year, and that's when Burr happened to be
nominated for president from the floor. He ended up being elected against the
wishes of the executive board at that time. It was a relatively closed
organization in those years.
Where did Dr. Bill O'Rourke and Dr. Burr
Beach fit into that?
Dr.
Metzig's response - He
actually came to help in the area of public relations. Burr Beach was the
secretary of the association. It was several years later, when I was chairman
of the executive board, that I had the pleasant opportunity of meeting with Dr.
Beach and telling him that he was going to appointed secretary emeritus. Dr. O'Rourke was going to replace him as
secretary of the WVMA. I remember going to Park Hotel, sitting down in the bar
room and giving him this news.
During his
presidency
When I was president, I tried to get
around to all of the different organizations in the state. At that time there
were not as many. That was a very enjoyable part of the presidency – meeting
veterinarians in other areas and attending their meetings. I remember going to
the southwest meeting. They met on an island in the Mississippi. Their speaker
that night was a fiery older gentleman who was the head of one of the farm
organizations in the state. He gave a fiery speech and said “The farmer is the
king of his domain, and when you set foot on his land, he is the boss!” I am
sure a lot of the veterinarians in attendance were quite taken aback and amazed
at his aggressive speech. I think now that the president-elect visits all or as
many of the state associations as he can because that's a better time to do it
than when president.
As president I guess I wasn't very
imaginative or inspirational. We were proud of our medical insurance that we
had established through the Time Insurance Company in Milwaukee. That was
really a wonderful time because we were admired by most of the other veterinary
organizations in other states. We had one of the best, if not the best,
insurance policies. That was a great help to all of us, as we were striving to
get going in our practices and make a good living. Our premiums were minuscule
compared to today’s.
The only difficulty that comes to my
mind during my presidency was one. There were two men, lay persons, that were
in the Madison area and did pregnancy work on a regular basis. That was of
concern because these men made monthly visits to herds and they had extensive
herds lined up in their programs. If I had
been a practitioner in one of these areas, I would have been concerned about
the business that they had developed. The head of the Tri-State Artificial
Breeding Association at Wesley, Wisconsin was a large cooperative outfit, led
us to believe that he was in support of veterinary examinations. But, when the
final judgment came on this challenge, I remember going to hearings in Madison.
In the final deliberations, we were not supported by the director to the extent
that we thought we should be. It was decided that these men should be allowed
to continue.
Dr.
Metzig's response - I
think we should have to explain a little bit how they came into being.
Initially, in 1935, when
insemination became possible, it was only veterinarians that were hired to be
the inseminators. Badger Breeders had at least five veterinarians working at
the time. Dr. Trombley came from Akron in 1942 as inseminator for Badger Breeders, and I remember Frank Gentile being involved for a
short time.
That was
during the war and there was a shortage of personnel to perform inseminations.
Dr. Wisnicky at the University of Wisconsin instituted this program as far as
teaching individuals how to inseminate cows in place of veterinarians doing it.
He was very adept at pregnancy diagnosis. There's no question about this. It
was only when he got involved with treatment that he got into trouble. They did
30 day pregnancy diagnosis, and there were a lot of veterinarians who were not
capable of doing that.
Annual
meeting
The annual meeting was held in the
Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee. Dr. Bill O'Rourke was our public relations person.
The banquet was very nice but, since it's almost 50 years ago, I do not remember
who the banquet speaker was. I had the nice Opportunity to present Quint Metzig
with the Veterinarian of the Year award, which is the most prestigious award
that a veterinarian receives annually. I also gave the Past President's award
to Dr. Harry O'Connell. Usually we hired a gentleman who had a band that played
in Milwaukee for years and years. We always had good dancing and good fun. Our
meetings, in those days, were not as sophisticated or as specialized as they
are today. I can always remember Dr. Schlimovitz, a colleague nearby in Black
River Falls and an old-time practitioner saying, “If you can just gain one or
two ideas from each meeting, it is well worth the time and money spent.”
Examining
board
I believe it was shortly after my term
as president that I became a member of the examining board, along with Dr.
Ferguson, Dr. Wriggleworlh, and Dr. Loren Swanson, and a doctor from Kiel.
These men had served long terms on the board. As they were retired, they were
replaced by Drs. Frank Gentile and Dr. Harries, and a Dr. Winn, Whitewater. It
was a pleasant five years. We had lots of good times together. No matter what
way we decided to grade the students taking the exam, it seemed we were pretty
much in agreement when things were summarized, as to whether a student passed
with a real good grade, or was marginal. We had a small percentage of failures.
Fees charged
Our fees were, compared to now, very
reasonable. I think my basic fee was $5 a call. There were a few veterinarians
who we thought were charging very high fees. They were very proud of their
skills. One, who comes to my mind, was Dr. Sam Elmer. He was a primary
veterinarian in the field of large animal surgery on the farm and charged good
fees. Dr. Ferguson from Lake Geneva was another one who felt that our
profession was not respected enough and did not charge high enough fees. They,
accordingly, went along those lines and charged higher fees than a small
practitioner like myself located in a small community. I can't say that they
were wrong and looking back, I would say that most of us have probably not
charged enough in relation to the length of time it took us to get our degrees
and how hard we had to work for our income.
Today the fees in the bovine and swine
areas have not gone up as much as inflation has. That may not be true of the
companion animal part of our business. In those early years of my practice,
farmers were receiving $3.50 for a hundred pounds of milk, and it seemed they
could make a good living with that price. Many families raised four or five
children and milked anywhere from 20 to 40 cows without having the financial
worries the present farmer, who is greatly overextended has now. I lament the
demise of the small family farm. It is not good for our country as we become
more urbanized.
TB program
The TB Program was a great thing for us
who started new in a community because we went to every farm in every township.
The TB testing program was not a voluntary program, but one that was enforced.
We were assigned townships and went from farm to farm lining up about 300 head
for next day's testing.
Dr.
Metzig's comments -I remember being paid $. 15 a head. I hired a
farm boy to help me. While I did the injecting with the farmer, he read the ear
tags, identified the cow and recorded the information for me. It really helped
a lot.
We got paid twice a month. It was pretty
nice to get that check for $200 or whatever. Boy, that money would go a long
ways in those days.
Final thoughts
Involvement in the WVMA was certainly a
good experience. It helped increase my ability to get in front of people, talk,
lead discussions, meetings and programs. I hope that most of us look back at
our experiences as practicing veterinarians with satisfaction, delight and with
remembrances of extremely hard rewarding work. I think that it is a blessing
when you work hard, because you appreciate the good things in life a lot more.
It seemed like work ethics were so
different in those days. Sometimes I think we felt we were being abused with
too much work. Thank goodness for good health throughout the years. It is a
great profession, and it is certainly a very changing one now as we view
computerization and specialization and the fact that women are such an integral
part of the veterinary world. Our son, pursuing the same course as I did, is
gratifying to us. My wife sympathizes with his challenges. Now that he and Dr.
Tripp have developed a beautiful new clinic facility, I compare that to the
facilities that I started first working in downtown Sparta, moving to a small
clinic addition on our home, and then, 25 years ago, buying another building in
which four of us practiced for 20 years. It certainly shows a progression in
our profession increasing public perception of veterinary medicine.
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