As KCVMA historian and regular contributor to KCVMA News and Notes, Dr. Steve Joseph has been telling the stories of veterinary giants for eight of his 25 years on the board. As he prepares to retire from his role as KCVMA historian, he reflects back on the evolution of the newsletter, the association, and his favorite articles.

Dr. Joseph comes by storytelling naturally. He began his career as a reporter, and had his eye on the big radio networks in Philadelphia and New York. But after returning from Vietnam, he was becoming disillusioned by the leanings of the media. During a visit to Kansas for his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, he made a side trip to Kansas State University and took a tour of the veterinary college. He decided to apply, and to his surprise, was accepted on his first try. “I had never worked in a veterinary practice doing things that people should be doing, like cleaning up cages and taking care of animals,” he recalls. “I didn’t know a caprine from a bovine from an equine. I had to learn all of that from scratch. I had a big row to hoe, but I made it.” Dr. Joseph graduated from KSU-CVM in 1978 and went on to work for the USDA as a veterinary medical officer for the northwest corner of Missouri. For five years, he ran federal and state programs for cattle, equine, and porcine disease. From there, he went to work at Haver-Lockhart (now Bayer) for 13 years and Royal Canin for 10, working in university relations and technical support for both companies. He retired about 10 years ago.

Throughout his career, Dr. Joseph’s roots as a reporter stayed with him. While working at Haver-Lockhart, his boss, Jerry Johnson, became president of the AVMA. In 1991, he asked Dr. Joseph and his wife, Linda, to help him out by getting involved in the KCVMA. The two had been members since 1978, but agreed to take on leadership roles; Linda as the executive secretary, Dr. Joseph as treasurer. Both agreed to produce a newsletter. “He was the best boss I ever had,” Dr. Joseph remembers about Johnson. “We couldn’t say no, because he did so many things for us. He was just a great guy.”

The couple had their work cut out for them. At the time, the newsletter wasn’t really a newsletter; rather, it was a one-page announcement detailing that month’s continuing education. The Josephs set out to make it a true newsletter. “One of the things that I really championed was news events,” says Dr. Joseph. “They were all really short. Maybe that second page would have 15 little headlines, and it would talk about people who had a baby and other life events. Readers really liked what we were doing.” The Josephs would collect content and send it to someone else for layout before getting it printed at Shawnee Copy Center. “Then, Linda had to come home, fold all of these, stuff them into envelopes, put on the addresses, and stamp all of them, so it was a humble beginning,” recalls Dr. Joseph. “But as it grew, it took on an entirely different flavor, and it got better every year.” Dr. Joseph points to the addition of Darin Nadler as editor, and a regular feature writer as improvements. “I’m just really proud of the way the newsletter has evolved,” he notes.
Eventually, Dr. Joseph was ready for a change. He stepped down from his role as treasurer and was asked to become the KCVMA historian. Before long, his role led him to create a historical column for News and Notes. “Just before I started doing articles, a lady from Webb City, MO, contacted me. Her grandfather had been a 1904 graduate of the Kansas City Veterinary College. She sent me his diploma, his composite picture, his license, and other items.” These materials led Dr. Joseph to write his first article in the series, “Built on the Shoulders of Veterinary Giants”, a name gleaned from a conversation with Dr. Ralph Richardson, dean of KSU-CVM at the time. “I was just a reporter about veterinarians and the animals they served; it was really these giants who did it all, veterinarians in the past and well-known animals.”

Dr. Joseph soon became fascinated by the history of organized veterinary medicine. Through his research, he learned that seven veterinarians from the Kansas City area have served as presidents of the AVMA, where previously it was thought there were only two. Expand the area to the states of Kansas and Missouri, and that number grows to 23, a fact Dr. Joseph finds amazing. He also discovered Kansas City had not one, but three veterinary colleges. “None of these colleges aside from the KCVC really had a long life,” he notes, “but the KCVC produced more veterinarians than any veterinary college in the country. It started humbly with three students in two rooms. The college was believed to be the finest in the U.S. at that time.” He says their demise came about around 1918 due to the loss of manpower caused by World War I. “There weren’t very many women being sought out for veterinary medicine at that time. Now, there are more women attending veterinary schools than men,” he says.

In addition to learning about the history of the profession, Dr. Joseph wrote articles about fascinating and unusual animals in veterinary history. One he recalls fondly was about Jim the Wonder Dog. “It was said that Jim was a clairvoyant. He could predict the outcome of the World Series, he predicted the winners of horse races, he could even pick out a car with Mississippi plates from a full parking lot,” laughs Dr. Joseph. He also remembers an article he wrote about a racehorse buried near Corinth Square in Overland Park. The horse, Lawrin, was an 8:1 underdog at Churchill Downs, but went on to become the only Kentucky Derby winner from Kansas. “I always wanted to tie the story back to a local veterinarian,” Dr. Joseph says of his articles. In this case, he was able to connect Lawrin to Wolford Farms, named after the owners of Wolf Brothers Clothiers. “Sometimes I just came upon these stories, sometimes people suggested them,” he says.

Dr. Joseph’s favorite article, however, was one titled “We Always Had Fun”, published in the January/February 2016 issue of News and Notes (http://www.kcvma.com/januaryfebruary.html). It highlights many of the social events held by KCVMA over the years. “One of the things we did was to have a barbecue out at the Roy Davis farm south of Kansas City. Roy Davis and Ken Huggins were the chefs, and they always did a super job,” Dr. Joseph recalls fondly. “They used to draw in a lot of veterinarians for those kinds of social events. Davis and Huggins would cook all day, and the barbecue would go on as long as people were there.” Dr. Joseph also recalled square dances, big parties, and dinner meetings, many planned by his wife, Linda. “That article was so much fun to write,” he says.

Though Dr. Joseph’s time as KCVMA historian and News and Notes contributor is coming to an end, he hopes veterinarians will continue to learn about the history of the profession. He encourages those who want to dig into the past to visit the historical archive on the KCVMA website (http://kcvma.com/historical-archive.html). As for his final article, Dr. Joseph says he’s brought his contributions full circle. “The articles all started with Dr. Frederick Cater. I revisit that in this issue. It ended where it began.”