A Legacy of Vision

DR. WILLIAM ROY PRITCHARD 1924—2020

We lost a brilliant visionary in veterinary medicine last October when Dean Emeritus Dr. William Roy Pritchard passed away at the age of 95. Known to many as Bill, Pritchard led the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine as its fourth dean for 20 years, from 1962 to 1982, setting the school on an exciting path with an impact still felt today.

Pritchard grew up on a farm in southern Wisconsin where he was deeply involved with his family’s crops and animals. That rural up- bringing inspired his lifelong love for the natural world, and shaped his view on veterinary medicine as the critical link between agriculture and human health.

He believed in the One Medicine concept, the precursor of One Health, which he introduced in the California Veterinary Medical Journal in 1964. This approach recognizes the connection between animals, people and the environment. The school integrated this deep commitment over the years and established the One Health Institute.

Pritchard’s law degree was invaluable as he testified before the U.S. House of Representatives in 1966 regarding the future of veterinary education. As a result, his vision and leadership are largely credited with helping to gain federal funding for veterinary schools and teaching hospitals across the nation.

The Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital opened in 1970 as the first of its kind in veterinary medicine and has become the model for nearly every veterinary college in the U.S. and Canada. Pritchard was instrumental in its design, funding and implementation. He provided essential leadership for the development of the hospital’s clinical teaching, research and service programs. The school named the hospital after him in 2007, making his name synonymous with the world-class veterinary program that he helped create.

Pritchard also established the Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center (VMTRC) in Tulare – the heart of the world’s dairy production – renowned for its dairy cattle research and training programs.

Drawing on his early veterinary laboratory experience, Pritchard seized the opportunity to incorporate California’s veterinary laboratory system into the school during the 1980s. The California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System is recognized as one of the nation’s premier veterinary diagnostic laboratories for its innovative service, novel technologies and creation of new knowledge.

“The school is a world leader today because of the foundation that Dean Pritchard built through his vision, knowledge and skills.”

– Dean Dr. Michael Lairmore

Pritchard served two terms as president of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges and later undertook the role as co-director of the Pew National Veterinary Education Program. He also made a global impact through extensive work in developing countries, especially in Latin America and Africa, advising governments on agriculture, livestock and wildlife, and the education and research needed to support these economic sectors. He personally advised the presidents of Kenya, Tanzania and The Gambia.

Pritchard served as an international consultant on several U.S. agriculture research and development programs and for the Rockefeller Foundation. He was a member of President Lyndon Johnson's Science Advisory Committee Panel on the World Food Supply, chairman of the Scientific and Cultural Exchange Mission to the U.S.S.R. in 1967, and served on President Richard Nixon's Science Advisory Committee Panel on Biological and Medical Science.

Dean Emeritus Bennie Osburn credits Pritchard as instrumental in his vision that he implemented during his leadership from 1996–2011. This included the establishment of a Southern California Specialty Clinic in the San Diego area and the final buildout of the veterinary complex located adjacent to the current hospital.

“Dean Pritchard served as an excellent role model for me and gave me the opportunity to become involved with many national and global programs,” said Osburn, who also served as associate dean for Research and Graduate Education under Pritchard for six years. “His concern about hunger and starvation along with poverty in sub-Sahara Africa and southeast Asia remain an objective of mine.”

Recognized by his peers, Pritchard received the K-State Centennial Award for Distinguished Service in 1963, an Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota in 1976 and was elected to membership in the National Academy of Practice in Veterinary Medicine in 1986. He was named a Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine Alumni Fellow in 1987. In 1991, he was awarded the UC Davis Academic Senate Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award.

“The school is a world leader today because of the foundation that Dean Pritchard built through his vision, knowledge and skills,” said Dean Michael Lairmore. “He would have been proud of our faculty who continue to address fundamental issues facing our world, from the effects of climate change on infectious disease transmission to shedding light on the origins of our current pandemic.”

In his Memoirs of the Luckiest Man in the World, dedicated to his wife Deanna, Pritchard wrote, “For me, veterinary medicine was the ideal profession, and I am very grateful to have been afforded through it so many opportunities for service to humankind.”