Dr. C. Richard Beckett

The University of Findlay will host a public dedication and open house Friday, May 1, at its new Dr. C. Richard Beckett Animal Science Building, located at the University’s Animal Sciences Center on State Route 68.
   
The outdoor ceremony will begin at 1 p.m. Dr. C. Richard Beckett, for whom the building is named, will offer remarks. Other speakers will include Dr. DeBow Freed, president of the University, and Dr. F.D. McCarthy, head of the Center for Equine and Pre-Veterinary Studies at UF.
   
Self-guided tours, with students stationed within the barn to answer questions, will be held from 1-4 p.m. and 5-8 p.m. Friday, and from 9 a.m. – noon Saturday.
   
The Beckett Building honors the efforts of Dr. Beckett for conceiving and helping to start the pre-veterinary program at the University nearly 30 years ago, and for his unending support of the program since then.

Beckett, who currently serves as chair of the University’s Board of Trustees, is a veterinarian and president/owner of Animal Care Centers of America. He is a founding member of the Hancock County Humane Society and is active in professional, community and church organizations. He received his D.V.M. degree from The Ohio State University in 1960, and was later named an OSU Distinguished Alumnus.

The two classrooms in the Peck-Kerns Academic Wing are named for Dr. Linda M. Peck, D.V.M., director of pre-veterinary studies, and Dr. C. Michael Kerns, D.V.M., professor of animal science.

Peck serves as career counselor for pre-veterinary students and teaches courses in biology and the pre-veterinary major. She has been a full-time faculty member since 1986 and continues to practice as an associate veterinarian with the Findlay Animal Hospital and Findlay Animal Care Center Inc.

Kerns teaches animal handling and various other equine and pre-veterinary medicine courses and is coordinator of the pre-veterinary barn. He is the director of veterinary services and is responsible for preventive health programs and routine medicine and surgery for the animals.

The Beckett animal science building is central to the University’s pre-veterinary medicine program, one of the strongest and most successful academic programs at the University. It replaces the existing 100-year-old pre-vet barn and allows for consolidation of the program’s space and resources.
   
The new building is an attractive, efficient, high-quality, 31,000-square-foot learning environment with two 50-seat classrooms, a laboratory, a pharmacy, a student lounge, locker rooms, offices, instructional demonstration areas, holding pens and other animal servicing areas. In addition to classrooms on site, the new barn offers many benefits the old barn lacked. Automatic waterers were installed in pens, and there are working chutes to move livestock, heated rooms for animals that are sick or giving birth, and a heated bucket washing room to ensure proper washing of equipment.