Donald A. Price
Dr. Donald A. Price of Hunt, Texas, died Dec. 11, 2005, at the age of 85. Dr. Price served 26 years on the AVMA staff—14 of them as chief administrative officer—in a veterinary career that began in research and private practice.
Joining the AVMA staff in 1958 as associate editor, Dr. Price was appointed editor-in-chief the following year. In 1962, he accepted the additional responsibilities of assistant secretary (later called assistant executive vice president).
“It was a perfect fit,” said Dr. Walter F. Juliff (TEX ‘46), his longtime friend and former partner. “He had that curious scientific mind and also that knowledge and obsession with the English language.”
On the first of January 1972, Dr. Price became AVMA executive vice president. His tenure was characterized by many changes within the profession, and steady growth of the Association and an accompanying increase in staff size. He supervised construction of the first AVMA headquarters building and the move from Chicago to Schaumburg, Ill., in 1975.
For encouraging cooperation between veterinary groups for the betterment of the profession, Dr. Price received the Award of Merit from the American Animal Hospital Association in 1983. At that time, he was vice president of the Pan-American VMA. He represented the AVMA at international congresses in Mexico City, Venezuela, and Chile. The Panamerican Congress of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics also recognized his contributions.
Dr. Price had studied business administration and worked at Wheeling Steel Corp. in West Virginia. His five years of Air Force service included the World War II years and ended in his 1946 discharge with the rank of captain.
The Ohio native enrolled as a postwar student at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Upon receiving his DVM degree in 1950, Dr. Price was a veterinary research scientist at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station in Sonora. There, he did investigational research, chiefly on diseases of sheep and cattle.
A disease had just emerged in Texas sheep that was being called soremuzzle. Dr. Price co-authored a January 1952 report in JAVMA with Dr. W.T. Hardy describing the similarities to bluetongue, a disease not previously known in the United States. The causative agent was later confirmed to be bluetongue virus. Dr. Price also worked with sporadic bovine encephalomyelitis and plant poisoning in cattle, produced a contagious ecthyma vaccine, and provided veterinary extension services.
In 1955, he and Dr. Juliff formed a general practice partnership at San Angelo, Texas, where Dr. Price worked until joining the AVMA Publications Division three years later. The author or co-author of scientific reports in professional journals as well as special reports and editorials in JAVMA, Dr. Price was the first veterinarian elected a fellow of the American Medical Writers Association.
Other honors included the Distinguished Alumnus Award from OSU in 1966 and the Kentucky Colonel Award from the Kentucky VMA in 1973.
At the end of 1984, Dr. Price retired from the AVMA, moving with his wife, June, to the hill country north of San Antonio, where he expanded their homestead. He maintained his Texas license and was delighted to help neighbors who called with a sick sheep or a heifer that was calving.
When Dr. Price retired, the AVMA endowed the D.A. Price Lectureship Fund in Veterinary Medicine in his honor at his Ohio State to stimulate discussion of veterinary issues. After retirement, he served as a consultant and adjunct professor at Texas A&M.
Dr. Juliff, who served many years in the AVMA House of Delegates and was on faculty at Texas A&M, noted, “He was an OSU graduate but had real affection for A&M, knowing the high values and standards the university instills in its students.”
Dr. Price was a distinguished life member of the Texas VMA; an honorary life member of the Illinois State and Michigan VMAs; and an honorary member of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, American Association of Small Ruminant Practitioners; AAHA, and Bexar County VMA in San Antonio.
Dr. Price is survived by his wife, June, and their three daughters: Karen Privett, Benita Esposito, and Donna Jean Rocap.
Memorials may be made to Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly (a camp and conference center), 2229 FM 1340, Hunt, TX 78024; Galveston Shriners Hospital, 815 Market St., Galveston, TX 77550; Deitert Senior Center, 617 Jefferson St., Kerrville, TX 78028; or another charity.