Dr. William Burmeister of Pulaski - WVMA President
1978
Personal
information
I graduated
from Bonduel High School in 1943. I attended Ohio State University for two
quarters in 1943 and then spent 2 ½ years in the military. After discharge from
the service, I attended Michigan State University where I completed
pre-veterinary courses and four years of training in the Veterinary College,
graduating in 1951.
I met my
wife, Wilmine Baehre, at Michigan State. We were married in June of 1951. We
moved to Pulaski immediately after graduation, where a practice was begun in
association with Dr. Loren Swanson of Bonduel for a year and a half. That
association was dissolved, at which time a solo practice was established. I was
fortunate to have a pre-vet student, Robert Burr, assist me for three years
during the summers and break time from school. After he graduated from Michigan
State University, he was
employed for five or six years, at which time a
veterinary partnership was formed. About 10 years later a third veterinarian,
Dr. James Helms, joined us.
The practice
was headquartered in our house, which was built specifically with veterinary
facilities attached. In 1979, as the practice grew, a new veterinary clinic was
built in Pulaski—The Pulaski Clinic. A fourth veterinarian was then added. It
was then that a corporation was formed, the Pulaski Veterinary Clinic, Ltd. I
was president of this clinic until 1992. I retired in the fall of 1992, selling
my interest to my colleagues. The clinic is operating at the present time with
four veterinarians and four lay assistants.
My wife, Wilmine, and I have four children, Bill and Jim,
and two daughters, Jane and Nancy. All have graduated from different
universities and are married and gainfully employed. The sons are in private
industry and the daughters are school teachers. We have six grandsons and two
granddaughters.
While I was
president-elect
Veterinary museum
One of the
fun things as President-elect was to help dedicate the Wisconsin Veterinary
Museum, a part of the Galloway House and Village in Fond du Lac, along with Dr.
Fred Bom of Fond du Lac on June 4, 1977. Dr. Born was co-chairman of the WVMA
Historical Committee. We were dressed
for the occasion in attire of that particular era.
On exhibit
are many valuable and some priceless relics, instruments, equipment, medicinals,
just to have a bit of authenticity for the occasion. Dr. Donald Price, AVMA
Executive Vice President, was in attendance at the ceremonies as well.
Veterinary
school issue
During my president-elect year, the big
challenge when visiting the local Wisconsin veterinary organizations was
advocating the necessity of establishing a veterinary college at the University
in Madison. It was surprising the amount of opposition there was within the
profession.
I had to do a lot of arm-twisting and telling them the
reasons why: Because veterinary medicine was changing at that time; you know,
because of the nutritional situation with large animals; and because herd
health, from mastitis to you know fertility work. This was all changing
during that time, and that's why I was really in favor of establishing the
school because of all these changes.
However, I
was pleased with the reception I was given in most places after adequate
explanation was given.
During my presidency
The year of
the presidency was a challenge. It was then that Bill O'Rourke, the executive
secretary of WVMA and I met with or before legislative committees extolling the
merits of establishing a college of veterinary medicine. These meetings were
conducted several times in Madison. Again, skeptics in the legislature had to
be convinced. We had to list all the positive reasons for establishing the
school. The legislative people had all the negatives. There were too many
people in the legislature at that time who didn't favor a veterinary college.
In the
legislature, they were in favor of lay treatment. Lay vaccinations for small
animals and large animals. Even to the point of giving their own rabies shots
and distemper shots without having adequate records on the subject, so we had
to try to counteract that. But, I guess that was ongoing for quite a while and
probably is still a problem. Look the rabies thing came up again in 1998.
During these two years, I really learned to appreciate
Dr. O'Rourke. I thought he was a wonderful executive secretary for our group; a
dedicated person with a vision, which he saw to its fruition.
During my
year as president, the question of treatment of "quack practitioners"
vaccination of animals by lay people, including rabies
and distemper, without proper documentation or adequate records came up at
hearings also. But I guess this is still a problem.
During my
era, many changes in veterinary medicine were developing from "fire
engine" type medicine to preventive and herd health types of practice.
There have
been changes within the WVMA since my presidency also. The meeting schedules
are different.
I feel the
social lives of veterinarians in local districts were more closely established
in and around 1978. The women's auxiliary were more viable organizations at
that time. But the whole social structure in the country has and is changing,
so I guess this also became inevitable in the veterinary societies.
There was consideration for changing the annual meeting
from the winter time, which I still like, instead of the change that was made
of having it in the fall. But that was under consideration then already, and I
kind of wanted it to stay in the winter time. Apparently, I was overruled later
on that one.
Local association meetings
At the
Northeastern Veterinary Medical Association, sociability was a lot greater at
that time. We always had some educational meetings. The older members would
always welcome a new veterinarian in the group and you got to know them real
well. I don't think that's happening any more at these meetings.
When I go to
local meetings every once in a while I feel like I'm on the outside and this
never was the feeling when I was young and came into the association. The older
veterinarians just took you right in and made you feel like part of the group.
I think a little of that is lacking now. My wife, Willie, goes there now and
just doesn't feel part of it like she used to.
Government programs
I was
involved with government programs when I first came into practice, but most of
those programs were put aside. They were completed due to the testing that had
been done through milk. They seemed to think that TB was more or less
eradicated in animals and that it was no longer a problem with the transmission
of TB between large animals and man. Most of the government programs just went
by the wayside then. However, then at that time, the mastitis thing was coming
into vogue and milking machine testing; trying to eradicate mastitis in
different ways. Numerous tests were being done for the bacteria that caused
mastitis, more so than ever before. But just making sure the milking machine
was working properly, as today, was a big part of mastitis. Dr. John Dahl was
the forerunner of that. He was a very good one. I guess he' s still involved in
that to a high degree today.
Annual meeting
The annual meeting was held at Milwaukee
at the Pfister Hotel. They always accommodated us real well. I liked the
Pfister for annual meetings. We didn't have a veterinary college at that time,
so we couldn't go to Madison. They thought Milwaukee was a good spot and could
accommodate a big amount of people, and we always had good attendance at our
regular annual meeting and, as far as I'm concerned, it was done well.
The program
was always put into the hands of somebody on the board and so they had good
educational programs. During the three days we were there, there were both
small and large animal programs. At that time, the auxiliary was quite strong
and they had their meeting at the same time. The sociability was there.
Everybody would go to the different social functions that they had in the
evenings. The big one was the banquet where there was always some
good entertainment or a good speaker, or both. At that time, when I was the
president, we had a speaker, Dr. Walter, from Lawrence University. We had the
Suzuki violinists and they were excellent. They more or less were strolling
violinists, went around the tables, and played their music. That was fun. I am
not ashamed to say that I was proud to have been able to have them appear before
us.
Final thoughts
I was
fortunate to be able to have the experience of being the president of the
Wisconsin
Veterinary
Medical Association. Those were three good years: the president-elect, the
president, and the past-president year. I enjoyed them a lot, met a lot of good
colleagues who I see every once in a while now. This was a good part of being
able to be an officer of the WVMA.
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