In memory of Dr. Gavin Meerdink
Gavin Meerdink (1945-2020): In 1970, Dr. Meerdink became the third generation of his family to earn a veterinary degree from Iowa State University. He founded a practice in Denison IA, mainly for large animals, and it became a multi-person facility. He returned to Iowa State to teach large animal internal medicine and joined its Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in 1974. He became a diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Toxicology in 1978. He was hired by Michigan State University in 1979 as an Associate Professor in its diagnostic laboratory, large animal clinic, and extension. He became Chief of the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, University of Arizona in 1983. In 1989, he joined the University of Illinois Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory as Clinical Professor and Head of Diagnostic Toxicology and also served as Beef and Feed Safety Extension Veterinarian and Director of the Veterinary Medical Research Farm. He contributed to many committees of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) and was President of that organization in 1990. He helped establish the Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation and was a member of the organizing committee of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners. He was given the E. P. Pope Memorial Award by the AAVLD in 2002. For more information, please see Dr. Meerdink’s obituary.