Dr. Reginald George Thomson (1934–2002)

The Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC), University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island wishes to pay a special tribute to its founding dean, Dr. Reginald George Thomson, who passed away on December 14, 2002, in his hometown of Woodstock, Ontario, after a protracted illness.

Reginald Thomson was born on a dairy farm in Woodstock, Ontario, on April 7, 1934. In high school, he drove a green pickup truck with a big picture of a Jersey cow on the side. With this truck, he would call for Helen Ure, a town girl and his future wife. As a student at the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC), University of Toronto, in Guelph, Ontario, Reg was determined to succeed in academics, and in extracurricular activities. For example, he was active in the OVC and Campus Student Councils, as well as in coaching his class football team. He graduated from the OVC in 1959 and worked in a mixed practice in Fisherville, Ontario, for 2 years.

Dr. Thomson returned to the OVC and worked under Dr. Ken Jubb to earn the MVSc degree in Pathology in 1963. He continued his graduate training at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York and obtained his PhD under Dr. Ken MacEntee in 1965. That same year, he became a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists and was appointed associate professor at the OVC, University of Guelph. Within 2 years, he was promoted to full professor; then, in 1969, he was elected chairman of the Department of Pathology, a position he held for 10 years. During the Guelph years, Reg published extensively and supervised many graduate students in pathology. He published the 1st edition of General Veterinary Pathology in 1976.

Towards the end of 1978, Dr. Thomson was granted a 3-year leave of absence from the OVC to explore the possibility of establishing a veterinary school in the Atlantic region. Reg moved to Charlottetown with his wife and Kathy, 1 of their 3 daughters (Joanne and Carol were in university). As planning coordinator for the proposed school, Reg set up office on the UPEI campus in January 1979, first, in one of the university residences and, later, in a renovated swine barn. His task was to persuade Atlantic Canadians of the need for, and the benefits of, a veterinary school in the region, and to come up with a vision of the kind of school it should be. He tackled this task with the kind of single-minded devotion that he had applied to every other cause in his life. In planning the new college, he wrote hundreds of letters and made numerous presentations to universities, bureaucrats, provincial and federal politicians, veterinarians, farmers, fishers, and the media in order to seek their inputs and formulate his vision. He travelled throughout the Atlantic region, sometimes with his family, sometimes with the president of the UPEI, Dr. Peter Meincke, sometimes with staff from the premier's office. During the next 3 years, his vision, determination, and tireless efforts laid the groundwork for the college. When agreements for the college could not be finalized, Reg took up an appointment as professor of pathology at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan during 1982 to 1983.

The Atlantic Veterinary College was finally established at the University of Prince Edward Island in July 1983 with Reg Thomson as the founding dean. He immediately went to work and, in the next 3 years, guided a team of architects, builders, and, later, veterinary colleagues in putting up a world-class veterinary medical teaching, research, and service facility in Charlottetown (1). Due in no small measure to his national and international veterinary experience, he was able to recruit highly qualified faculty and staff from Canada, the United States, and overseas relatively quickly, in spite of severe shortages in many veterinary disciplines throughout North America at that time. In 1986, 52 students from Atlantic Canada and the United States were admitted to the 1st class. Reg witnessed this class as they began their studies and presented the class for the first DVM degrees from the AVC at the Convocation in May 1990.

That same year, the College was granted full accreditation status for the maximum 7-year period by the American Veterinary Medical Association/Canadian Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education, so faculty, staff, students, and the veterinary community were saddened and shocked when Reg resigned his deanship in July 1990 due to ill health. There were so many ways in which he particularly touched his colleagues, staff, and students and influenced the veterinary profession to which he devoted his life.

Reg, a distinguished teacher

Reg loved to teach students in the classroom, on the postmortem floor, during “show-and-tell” sessions, and in research laboratories and animal facilities. Because of his genuine devotion to pathology, he continued to teach 3 courses, including the entire General Pathology course, while serving as the dean.

It was most befitting that Reg was a recipient of the Norden Distinguished Teacher Award in 1971, and the Award for Teaching Excellence for pathology instruction in 1972. Furthermore, he was named Alumnus of Honour by the University of Guelph Alumni Association in 1986. In his retirement, Reg received 2 honorary doctoral degrees, one from the University of Prince Edward Island in 1993 and the other from the University of Guelph in 1994. He was also named professor emeritus in the Department of Pathology and Microbiology at the AVC and, in 1993, he was the recipient of the C.L. Davis Award for sustained excellence in teaching veterinary pathology.

After revising his lecture notes on General Pathology for many years, Reg eventually published General Veterinary Pathology in 1976 (2nd edition in 1984). The book quickly became a standard text in many veterinary schools worldwide and was translated to many languages. A special feature of the book was the quality and quantity of its photographs of gross specimens. In 1988, while establishing the AVC, he edited an even more popular book, Special Veterinary Pathology, another standard text in veterinary schools. This book is now in its 3rd edition and is entitled “Thomson's Special Veterinary Pathology” in recognition of his enormous contribution.

According to author and researcher Marian Bruce (2), students admired and respected Reg as a teacher, although they did not always like him. “He demanded much of himself, and of the people around him. Some students found him intimidating” (3). But according to Dr. Tim Ogilvie, a former student of Thomson at the OVC and currently dean of the AVC, Reg did not set out to intimidate people, “But his knowledge of pathology was so complete, he intimidated people by the force of his knowledge. When you were in the classroom, you knew he meant business.” He had a good reputation among people who were there to learn. Others didn't like him because he wasn't at all light-hearted. Thomson had an uncanny knack for spotting any ill-prepared wretch who couldn't identify a particular laboratory specimen, and he would let the rest of the class know who that student was. That did not endear him, or his pathology laboratory class, to some students; as Dr. Tom Wright, a member of the AVC Class of 1990, said, “as students became acquainted with Thomson, their respect for him grew.” Most of the time, he appeared shy and deep in thought. He was always trying to figure out how to improve things, and how to manage the College better (2).

Reg, the researcher

In 1965, soon after returning from Cornell University, Reg started to teach graduate courses at the OVC. He supervised 3 PhD and 12 MSc students at Guelph and served in the supervisory committees of 12 doctoral and 26 masters theses. Reg's graduate students came from different parts of the world. He looked for the best and then ensured that they were well trained to practise the profession anywhere in the world. His standards were very high, but he understood the problems of foreign graduate students, relating to them as a supervisor, a mentor, and even a big brother when the need arose. He kept in touch with his students long after they graduated, and this enabled him to establish a worldwide network that probably played some role when he needed to recruit faculty for the AVC.

Dr. Thomson's main areas of research were the pathology of respiratory diseases, especially bovine shipping fever, as well as reproductive and bone diseases. He published over 60 research papers in learned journals, in addition to numerous papers and abstracts in conference proceedings. In addition, he was the editor of the Canadian Journal of Comparative Medicine (now Canadian Journal of Veterinary Research) from 1970 to 1982 and was, in large part, responsible for its being ranked at the forefront of veterinary journals around the world. He served for 4 years as an examiner in the American College of Veterinary Pathologists and for many years on the Advisory Board of the Charles Louis Davis Foundation for the advancement of veterinary pathology.

Reg, the administrator

According to Dr. Bob Curtis, a contemporary of Dr. Thomson and a founding department chair at the AVC, Reg showed an interest in organizing and leading people long before he became a faculty member. As a veterinary student in the 1950s, he was elected by his classmates in his 3rd year to the OVC Student Council and was elected twice to the Campus Student Union Council. Reg was very much interested in sports and particularly in football. As the coach of the OVC's class of ‘59 team, Reg had early morning practice for his team 4 or 5 times a week and developed a quite extensive “game book.” Consequently, his team won the OVC Football Championship 4 years in a row.

As chairman of the Department of Pathology in Guelph, Reg reached out to graduate students from all over the world. In the mid-1970s, he helped to design and oversee the construction of a new pathology building, incorporating offices, research laboratories, and diagnostic facilities, among others. This experience came in handy when he had to plan the design of the AVC building, and the housing of all departments and units under one roof.

His style of administration involved planning and consultation, followed by precise and timely action. He was quiet, intense, and extraordinarily well focused (2). He was the proverbial man of action, a tireless worker, regularly putting in 6 or 7 days a week. He cherished his short naps after supper and would then return to the school, often until midnight. It was unbelievable how hard he worked, and how much he accomplished as a teacher and an administrator. According to Mel Gallant, his assistant at the time, Reg Thomson's inclination to get people involved in their work was a special talent (3). Ms. Cora Conrad, his secretary, said that Dr. Thomson talked and slept veterinary medicine and that his enthusiasm was contagious. His coworkers regarded Reg as a visionary with confidence in the future. He saw where he wanted to go; problems were just obstacles to be overcome. Stress from being involved in large projects was to him just another obstacle, and he exhibited a remarkable ability to stay calm in the midst of apparent turmoil (3). If ever there was a man who could put 8 balls in the air and catch them all, it was Reg Thomson, according to Ms. Heather Cole, who, like Cora, was a secretary in the earliest years of the AVC (2). David Weale, who was principal secretary to Angus MacLean, premier of Prince Edward Island at the planning stage of the college, said, “Thomson could always be counted on to work for the cause. He wasn't a flashy man by any means, but, my goodness, he was committed to the thing (AVC) happening.” Weale described him as “relentlessly persistent.....to the point where I felt worn down by the man at times”(2). As a leader, Reg helped people achieve their potential by example and by gentle persuasion, and he never failed to acknowledge extra effort.

Reg and international veterinary medicine

In 1970, Reg was appointed consultant to the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa on a project on trypanosomiasis between the Ontario Veterinary College and the then East African Community. The project enabled him to visit and interact with researchers in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda on this major scourge of livestock in the region. Fully aware of the opportunities and challenges in international veterinary medicine, Reg took an 8-month sabbatical leave from Guelph in 1975 to be spent in Africa. He and his family went to Kenya, where he taught and carried out research at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Nairobi. While there, he had additional first-hand experience with tropical diseases of farm animals and domestic pets and further consolidated his interactions with researchers at the East African Veterinary Research Organization at Muguga and at the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases at Kabete.

Between 1969 and 1983, Reg served as external examiner for PhD, MVSc, and DVM students at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria on 4 occasions. In April 1975, he was also a consultant and guest lecturer at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Baghdad, Iraq. In his 2nd term as dean at the AVC, he took an ambitious sabbatical leave in 1989/1990 that was to take him to several tropical veterinary institutions in Europe, Africa, South-East Asia, and Australasia over a 1-year period. After further consultations, he and his wife limited the visits to institutions in Great Britain, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand. He presented seminars at many of these places; interacted with faculty, graduate students, and administrators; and, most importantly, collected slides and teaching materials on foreign animal diseases, which, on his return from the sabbatical, he handed over to his colleagues at the AVC.

Several years later, his vision led to the establishment of 2 senior year rotations in the AVC, one for international veterinary medicine and the other for foreign animal diseases; these were initiated and coordinated by his former graduate students, Drs. Alfonso Lopez and Dr. Basil Ikede, respectively.

Reg at home

Many of the achievements of Reg Thomson as a teacher, researcher, and administrator were due in no small part to the unqualified support he received from his wife, Helen, and their 3 daughters. Helen accompanied him to meetings and conferences; she organized the home front and opened her home to students, especially foreign students, who otherwise would sometimes have felt lost soon after their arrival in Canada. She coordinated the family's international travels to many parts of the world where Reg was external examiner, visiting professor, or invited speaker. After Reg was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, Helen was the pillar at home and during the few professional engagements in which Reg participated. She was, and still is, a truly remarkable woman, mother and grandmother of 5, and she was steadfast in her support for Reg until the very end.

Reg, the end of the road

After being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, Reg retired from the University of Prince Edward Island in 1991 and returned to Woodstock, Ontario, his place of birth. By 1993, this great teacher, researcher, author, and editor was unable to write his name (2).

Dr. Ray Long, one of his colleagues and a former chairman of the Department of Pathology and Microbiology at the AVC, spearheaded the establishment of the Reginald G. Thomson Fund in 1995 by the UPEI to honor the significant accomplishments of Dr. Thomson. This fund supports an award for the top student in each graduating DVM class; it also supports the graduate program of the College, including the annual R.G. Thomson Lecture during the Graduate Studies and Research Days.

At Reg's funeral service on December 17, 2002, the following poem from Rainbow Bridge Tribute (4) was read by his niece, Mary-Jane Connell:

When I come to the end of the road,

And the sun has set for me,

I want no rites in a gloom-filled room.

Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little — but not too long,

And not with your head bowed low.

Remember the love and laughter we once shared;

Miss me — but let me go.

For this is a journey we must all take,

And each must go alone.

It's all a part of the Master's plan —

A step on the road to home.

When you are lonely and sick at heart,

Go to the friends we know,

And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds.

Miss me — but let me go.

(Author Unknown)

Dr. Reginald George Thomson