Dr. Thomas Beckett of Birnamwood – WVMA
President 1980
Photo: Courtesy
of Dr. Tom Beckett
Personal information
I graduated
from the Ohio State University in 1962. After graduation I jointed my brother,
Dr. Don Beckett in a mixed practice in Rising Sun, Indiana and was there about
four years. The area there was changing considerably with dairy farming on the
decline so my wife and I had decided we would like to practice here in
Wisconsin or Pennsylvania, the large dairy states.
We were
able to find a location in Wisconsin at Birnamwood. How it had transpired, Dr.
Fred Zimmerman had been in practice here in Birnamwood and left to go to work
for Fort Dodge Laboratories. Mr. Bill Roblear, the president of the Bank of
Birnamwood sent out the request to veterinary colleges for a veterinarian for
an opening in Birnhamwood. We found out about it, contacted Mr. Roblear and
came up to look at the area and decided it was what we were looking for.
My wife and
I loaded our two young daughters, one a year and a half and the other one six
months old, in the car and came to Birnamwood to practice. That was in January
1966.
At the time,
I did not have a license to practice, so I had to apply and travel to Madison
to appear before the Board to get a permit to practice, until the next state
exam was given, which was in June of that year. We moved up and started a
practice from scratch. It has now grown into a five-person practice after 30
years. Our practice right now is about 75% large animal, the majority being
dairy, about 15 percent equine, and about 15 percent small animal. At the time
we moved Marathon County was the largest dairy county in the U.S. with
approximately 92,000 head of dairy cows. It has now been outdistanced by some
of the California counties.
Our family
now consists of four children and six grandchildren.
During my president and president-elect years
Veterinary school issue
The biggest
thing that occurred during my time as president-elect was the upcoming new veterinary school. Every district meeting, which I
attended as president-elect, the issue of the veterinary school came up. It
seemed like it was about evenly divided between veterinarians who were in favor
of the new school and veterinarians who were not in favor of the school. There
were some very heated discussions at the meetings. Dr. O'Rourke, our executive
secretary, was quite outspoken in favor of the school. Many of the
veterinarians thought that he was echoing the sentiments of the WVMA as being
in favor of the veterinary school, and took issue with those comments. A group
of veterinarians passed a petition to impeach Dr. O'Rourke as Executive
Secretary. This happened in late December with our annual meeting coming up in
Milwaukee in February. We had an emergency meeting of the executive board in
January to try and resolve this issue. I felt kind of at a loss because Bill
had planned the whole meeting and what if we did, indeed, impeach him at the
time? We resolved the issue and Bill stayed on as Executive Secretary and we
went on to have a successful state meeting that year. And, as you know, the
veterinary school went on to become a reality.
Travel and time
responsibilities
I have to
give the veterinarians credit who were in practice with me, at that time
because I was gone quite a bit of the time. They were good about it. I spent a
lot of nights, leaving Birnhamwood at 5 p.m., driving four hours to a meeting,
and then driving back and getting back at 2:30, 3 a.m., and getting up and
going to work the next day. If I had it to do over again now, I certainly would
take more time, spend the night, and enjoy the other veterinarians that we met.
One of the
best parts of being the president-elect and president, and being on the
executive board, was getting to know all the veterinarians in the state. There
were very few that we didn't come in contact with and didn't get to know.
Practice issues
I've been in
practice 34 years. Thirty years here in Wisconsin. I think the biggest change
has been the make up of the practice. It was 95 percent dairy, and maybe 5
percent small animal and horses, and now is approximately 60 percent dairy, 20
percent small animal and 20 percent equine. Birnamwood, including Marathon, Shawano
and Langlade Counties, was primarily family sized farms. At that time, most of
the farmers were milking 25, 30, 40 cows and a lot of farms. Every farm down
the road that you did work for had a few cows. The biggest change has been
fewer family farms and more of the larger type farms. We still have family
farms here in Marathon and Shawano Counties, although they're getting larger.
Most of them are milking 75-80 cows. They're just now starting to expand. We
have a couple of dairies that have expanded to 500 cows and a couple that have
expanded up to 200-250 cows. But, over all, the majority of our farms are
family-size farms.
I was going
through some old papers at the office, and I ran across a receipt. In 1970 I
bought a new Pontiac Catalina for my practice. The invoice price on it $4,000,
and gas at that time was about $.35-$.36 a gallon. Today you buy a new truck
and you're paying $25,000-$30,000 for it and unit, and gas is $1 .30.
Executive board and other meetings.
I think we
met four times a year and most of those meetings were in Madison. I remember
several of them were at the Central Animal Health Lab at Madison.
The annual
meeting was always in February at the Pfister Hotel. We always enjoyed that
being from northern Wisconsin. It was a break for the wife and kids to get to
go to Milwaukee and spend a few days down at the Pfister Hotel, go shopping,
etc. The meetings were always very well attended. Everyone wore suits and ties,
and were dressed quite differently than what they are today. Today everyone is
in their sports clothes, and short-sleeved shirts, much more casual. As you
talk to the older veterinarians, I think that's one thing that they remember.
The emphasis
of the programs was on large animal medicine, more so than on small animal, at
that time. Avery popular part of the program was always the practice tips that
were given by the local practitioners.
The year
that I was president the summer meeting was held at Stevens Point with Dr. Tim
Swiecki was the chairman. We had a tennis tournament and a golf tournament, and
we introduced recreation as part of the summer meeting.
Visit with James
Herriot
One of the
most memorable meetings we attended was with a group from the American Bovine
Practitioners, was the World Butiatrics Convention in Amsterdam in 1982. A tour
was organized by Dr. Eric Williams from Oklahoma State University, who is
originally from Wales. Dr. Amstutz was along as was Lee Allenstein, Jake Hines,
Bob Keith, Jim Jarrett and others. There were about 35-40 of us all together,
veterinarians and their wives. We flew into Amsterdam and then flew from there
to London. Dr. Williams put together a bus tour through Wales and England. We
stopped in Wales to visit Eric's brother's home farm, which had been in the
family several generations.
We attended
a meeting of the Western Wales Veterinarians which was held in the dining room
of an old castle. They served a spit-roasted leg of lamb at each table of six.
They had plenty of wine to drink and, by the end of the evening, we were the
best of friends. We really enjoyed our visit with the Welsh veterinarians and
their wives.
After that
we traveled to Liverpool to visit the veterinary school at the university. At
this time Tristan (from the James Herriot books) and his wife, met us and
became our tour guides. We traveled through Yorkshire and toured the area where
the All Creatures Great and Small TV series was filmed. That night we
visited the Scaledale House in Thyrst, where Dr. Herriot had practiced and
still was practicing at that time.
That evening
we had dinner with Herriot and his wife, Tristan and his wife, Sigfreid and his
wife, and Herriot's two kids. The group presented him with an award from the
AABP for his books and the positive image they portray of veterinarians. He had
a tremendous ability to put what he had experienced in practice into words.
That was probably our most exciting trip that we made as veterinarians and I
think it was exciting because we were with other veterinarians.
Final thoughts
It's hard
to visualize what I would have been if not a veterinarian. I was born and
raised on a dairy farm down in Indiana. We farmed with horses. I always looked
up to the veterinarian who, I can still remember his name, Dr. Droege.
I can't
think of any other profession I would have enjoyed doing more than what I'd
done over the past 36 years. You really get to know the people, you know the
family, you know when there's a divorce, when there's a funeral or when there's
a baby born.
Your
clients get to be more than clients. They become very good friends and it's
been a great experience. Your family has to be supportive and help along with
it, but it's something that we've enjoyed along the way.
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