A Look Back at Our College Leaders
Robert K. Graham - 1945-1956
Dean Graham came to the
University of Illinois in 1917,
joining the Department of Animal
Husbandry. He pursued his vision
for a strong Extension program and diagnostic
service to aid the livestock industry and protect
public health. He also lobbied tirelessly for the
creation of the College of Veterinary Medicine and in
1945, he became its first dean.
The first class started instruction in 1948 in a former
sorority house. In 1952, a new basic sciences building
was completed, the first professional veterinary
class—consisting of 24 World War II veterans—
graduated, and the College’s first PhD degree was
granted. The following year, Dr. Lyle Hanson, who
later joined the faculty, became the first to earn a
master’s degree from the College. A Large Animal
Clinic was built in 1955, while the Small Animal
Clinic continued to operate in a former beef barn.
Also in 1955, Dr. Dorothy Safanie became the first
woman to earn a DVM from the College.
Dean Graham earned a veterinary degree from
Iowa State College and a master’s degree from the
University of Kentucky. He served in the Veterinary
Corps of the U.S. Army from 1917 to 1924 and
developed the first antitoxin for botulinus poisoning
in man.
Carl A. Brandly - 1956-1968
Dean Brandly spearheaded the
creation of the Center for Zoonoses
Research, which was established
in 1960. He was credited for his
devotion to professional and graduate education. His
worldwide service for the veterinary profession was
recognized by the American Veterinary Medical
Association’s 12th International Congress Prize.
In 1963, in response to growing class size and inadequate facilities, the current site bounded by
Lincoln Avenue, Hazelwood Drive, and St. Mary’s
Road was identified for new construction and
relocation of the College.
The College’s first endowed scholarship, the Anna
M. Gulick Scholarship, was established in 1964.
Dean Brandly earned a veterinary degree and a
master’s degree from Kansas State University.
During World War II he served as director of the
Huntington War Research Program on Exotic
Diseases at Harvard University Medical School.
L. Meyer Jones - 1968-1976
During the tenure of Dean Jones,
the two current hospital buildings
were built—the Small Animal Clinic
in 1971 and the Large Animal Clinic
in 1976—and the College began its innovative use of
computer-aided instruction with PLATO. Near the
end of his deanship the College joined forces with
the then-College of Agriculture to promote Food
for Century III, a program that sought state dollars
to help increase the contributions of the University
of Illinois to the state’s food production industry
through teaching, research, and Extension programs.
Dean Jones received his veterinary and master’s
degrees from Iowa State University and a PhD from
the University of Minnesota Medical School. He was
the author of an internationally known textbook,
Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Before becoming
the dean at Illinois, he had led the School of
Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia and
served for five years as director of scientific activities
at the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Richard E. Dierks - 1976-1989
During his tenure, the College’s
veterinary diagnostic laboratory
gained greater prominence within
the state diagnostic laboratory
system. The current Veterinary Medicine Basic
Sciences Building was completed in 1982, uniting all
College facilities in one area for the first time. The
Animal Poison Information Center originated as a
service program at the College in 1978, and operated
here for nearly 20 years before becoming part of the
ASPCA.
During the 1980s the College awarded 760 DVM
degrees, 93 master’s degrees, and 61 PhD degrees.
The College’s first endowed graduate student award,
the Mariangela and Diego Segre Research Award,
was also established then.
Dean Dierks earned a DVM, a master’s, and a
PhD degree at the University of Minnesota and
was considered an expert in microbiology. He
was a renowned veterinary statesman who held
prominent service leadership positions in organized
veterinary medicine and with the US Department of
Agriculture.
Victor E.O. Valli - 1989-2001
Under Dean Valli’s leadership, the
College benefited from nearly $6
million in state funding through a
new Venture Technology program.
Both the Medical Scholars joint degree program and
the clinical medicine PhD degree were established.
In 1996 the veterinary class size was increased to 100
students. By the late 1990s, the rising proportion
of women veterinary students stabilized at about 75
percent. Dean Valli fostered strong connections with
the professional students by hosting welcome and
graduation events in his home and by lecturing in
histology. In 1995, the College’s first class endowment was
created by the Class of 1962 to support a speaker at
the Annual Fall Conference for Veterinarians.
Dean Valli received a DVM degree from the
University of Toronto as well as master’s and PhD
degrees from Ontario Veterinary College, where
he also chaired the Department of Pathology and
served as associate dean of research before coming
to Illinois. He served in the South Alberta Regiment
from 1945 to 1954.
Herbert E. Whiteley - 2001-
Dean Whiteley has led the College
through a crucial planning phase
to ensure strategic growth despite budgetary
constraints. He is a strong advocate of the breadth of
the veterinary medical field, encompassing sciences
from complex molecular biology and epidemiology
to applied medicine and public health. Greater
multidisciplinary collaborations in translational
biomedical research—translating discoveries in the
basic sciences into relevant medical applications—
and the creation of a comprehensive facilities plan
for the future are hallmarks of his tenure.
The College’s first endowed chair, the Billie
Alexander Field Chair in Reproductive Biology,
was bestowed in 2004. By 2007 the number of
scholarship endowments at the College had reached
60, and 13 class endowments had been created.
Dean Whiteley has a veterinary degree from
Purdue University and a PhD from Colorado State
University. After serving on the faculty at Illinois
for more than 10 years, he spent six years heading
the Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary
Science at the University of Connecticut and the
Connecticut Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory
before returning to Illinois as dean.