This next Germinder20 Power of Pink Honoree is quite the “Guy.” Yes, he’s that Guy — Guy Pidgeon, DVM ACVIM. Together with Dan Richardson, DVM, DACVS, another extraordinary Germinder20 Power of Pink Honoree, we met to launch “Pets Need Dental Care, Too!” True to form, when it came time to tell his story, he shares the glory far and wide, acknowledging those that made an impact on his career. Forward mentorship and seeking AVMA board specialty credentials remain important themes. We salute him here too. — Lea-Ann Germinder
That is often the case. I grew up on a small, diversified farm in Nebraska. Typical of small farmers, we didn’t call the veterinarian until things were dire and we only used veterinary services for cattle. My dad might spend up to $10 a year on a good dog.
When Dr. Vernon came to work cattle for us I was so impressed that he would tell my dad and my uncle, Guy, a great big man who I was named after, what to do and they would do it. My uncle Guy was an “in charge” man. He didn’t book anybody telling him what to do, but he did what Dr. Vernon told him to do.
As a little kid, I was called little Guy after my uncle, and I thought being a veterinarian was a pretty good deal if it gave you the power to make somebody like my Uncle Guy behave.
When people in that farm community would say, “Little Guy, what are you going to do when you grow up?” I started saying “veterinarian” and I always received positive reinforcement.
I never really worked for or did any more than watch the veterinarians on the farm. I made it all the way to college saying I was on my way to being a veterinarian without ever really experiencing it to any extent.
I’ve known you for a long time, but I did not know you served in the military in the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam. Thank you for your service. Your experience came about in a most unusual way. Can you share that story?
It’s intriguing to think back on that. I was elected State Secretary of the Colorado FFA the summer after high school graduation. 
The following year I attended the University of Nebraska. Typical of many freshmen in college I sort of lost my way. A buddy of mine was have trouble with his grades and one day he said, “I’ve got to get out of here. I’m wasting my parent’s money.” I said, “Yeah, I think I am too. I think I probably ought to lay out as well.” So he said, “Let’s go join the Air Force.”
On a Monday morning we went to the Lincoln, Nebraska post office and interviewed with the Air Force guy, and he said, “Great. Come back Wednesday, we’ll give you a bunch of tests and decide where you fit in the Air Force.”
My buddy Jerry says, “Tests? We don’t want to take any stinking tests.”
So we said, “Let’s go talk to the Army guy,” and we didn’t like him. We were leaving when the Marine recruiter steps out of his office and says, “When are you coming to see me?” Jerry says, “We know all about the Marine Corps. We don’t want anything to do with it.”
Jerry was a short guy and the recruiter was big and tall. He leans down, puts his arm around Jerry and says, “Son, if you’ve heard about the Marine Corps from anybody but a true Marine, you’ve only heard a pack of lies. Let me tell you about the Marine Corps.”
Fifteen minutes later, we both signed up. Literally.
I told my parents when they came to Lincoln to attend the honors convocation. I had been awarded a nice scholarship for the coming year and I was going to turn it down.
It was the hardest conversation I guess I ever had with my parents. They were both distraught as they were well aware of the Vietnam conflict. It was particularly hard on my mom because her brother, my uncle, had been a prisoner of war in the Philippines and actually survived the Bataan Death March. He was shattered by it and died fairly young.
In addition to my uncle, I had a brother-in-law who served in Korea. One of my best friends from high school had joined the Marines a year or so before I did, so I was aware of the dangers.
That was in the spring of 1966. I always try to defend my intelligence by saying that I suppose the Lincoln newspapers were writing about Vietnam, but they didn’t put much on the sports page. I was going off to see the world. I wasn’t thinking of Vietnam
I don’t know if I ever apologized appropriately for putting my parents through those years, but hopefully I tried.
Because I had one year of college and could type, I ended up as an office worker on a supply base in Vietnam and spent nearly two years outside of Danang. While we received incoming rocket fire now and then, we didn’t suffer like the guys out in the field. By Vietnam standards for an enlisted Marine, I led a luxury life and was extremely lucky all the way around.
The Corps was trying to automate order entry and had installed a computer punch card system. I was trained in the system and was sent to our outlying bases in the Northern portion of SouthVietnam training other guys on the system. The effort might have been attempted before its time. Punch cards did not stand up to tropical humidity very well!
The Marines gave me incredible opportunities to learn from smart people and to take on responsibility. Retrospectively it was a marvelous growth experience and life-changing. I met wonderful people and friendships forged in a war zone are precious. However I wouldn’t care to try it again!
I received the Naval Commendation Medal because I showed up for work every day and did my job. There were so many negative reports about the behavior of the military I think they gave out NavComs to anybody who behaved well for three years. It certainly wasn’t for bravery under fire or any of that sort of thing. I was a duck and cover sort of guy!
After the military I went back to the University of Nebraska. That’s kind of a hoot regarding the way my career played out. I clearly remember interviewing with a woman who was re-enrolling me in college. She was not happy to be in the presence of a former Marine.
Remember, back then there was so much negativity about Vietnam that this woman was clearly unimpressed with my situation. She kept saying, “So what do you want to do?” And I kept saying, “I’m just happy to be alive. I’m happy to be back in college. I didn’t get hurt, I’m a lucky person.”
She says, “Well, come on, you were in pre-vet before, don’t you want to continue?”
I said, “Well, I think so but I don’t know.”
She said, “Look kid, the new rules during this Vietnam mess require you to leave school if you change your major twice in twelve months. So you better stay pre-vet.”
I said okay. Had she said do basket weaving or ironically had she said, “It’s really hard to get into vet school from Nebraska, we have two medical schools, you had a 3.8 grade average when you left college, why don’t you consider medical school,” I’d have probably said, “Fine, why not?”
So I remained a pre-vet major, joined the pre-vet club and went to work at the Swine Research Center. I remember talking to Dr. Zimmerman, who headed the research project and saying, “Geez, I really enjoy the work here. Maybe I should give up vet school and join your team as a graduate student.” He said, “No, no no. Go to vet school, get a DVM and then come back and do a PhD because it would be great if we had a veterinarian on the team. You could buy drugs, do surgery, etc.”
I went off to vet school thinking I might go back to Nebraska and do swine research, entered Colorado State and never saw or thought about a pig again!
Eventually I did go back to Lincoln and apologized to Dr. Zimmerman. Thankfully he had long since forgotten the conversation.
Volunteerism was in my DNA because of my parents. Neither had a high school diploma because they both had to quit school during the Depression. But they were well read and actively involved in our church and community. My dad was a life-long member of the Farm Bureau and held several offices.
Dad became involved in reenactments and the establishment of monuments to the Pony Express. He rode a section of the Pony Express trail every year, even into his ’80s.
By the way, my dad had a lifelong belief that the trail was incorrectly marked in one section. He said, “Nobody riding a horse through that part of the countryside would take the trail that they have marked.” He said, “They went over here.” He believed that to his dying day.
My mom was involved in the American Legion Auxiliary and the DAR. Her side of the family could be traced all the way to the Mayflower. She taught Sunday school, led 4-H clubs and Cub Scouts. The week of the county fair found her fully engaged in activities morning till night.
It was natural for me to volunteer when things needed to get done. I got started with some committee work for the student AVMA. Colorado State had a pretty active program and the faculty encouraged professional involvement. That began forty consecutive years of membership in the AVMA starting in 1972.
Can you explain how you got into Colorado State Veterinary School vs. Nebraska and how the exchange program works?
I suppose the novelty of a Vietnam vet who was interested in pigs helped get me accepted to veterinary school. My Colorado FFA experience helped and I had gone to high school in Colorado. We lived near the Nebraska-Colorado border and you could go to the nearest school if you were within ten miles of the border.
But I still feel I was extremely fortunate to get into Colorado State. Back then Nebraska was trading two seats in the Nebraska dental school for two slots at the Colorado State vet school. That program went one more year and ended when Colorado opened its dental program. The exchange system allowed me to pay in-state tuition, which was around $250 a quarter. It’s somewhat embarrassing to tell today’s students what it cost me to go to vet school compared to current fees.
Now Nebraska provides two years of training at Lincoln, and then the students transfer to Iowa State. I think they have fifteen or twenty slots a year. When I submitted my application, there were two at Colorado and maybe we would get one or two spots at Iowa State, one or two into Kansas State and rarely one at Missouri. It was brutally competitive.
I went to vet school with every intention of returning to the University of Nebraska or going back to my home area on the Colorado-Nebraska border as a large animal veterinarian. However that was subject to change!
During my third year of vet school Dr. Kohle Hermann came to Colorado State as a temporary visiting professor. He was a Texas A&M grad, but he had spent several years at the Animal Medical Center in New York City. So here was this good old boy from Texas arriving at Colorado State from New York City, and he was just an unbelievable breath of fresh air. Under the influence of Dr. Hermann and other small animal faculty members, I slowly decided that life as a companion animal veterinarian might be for me.
My senior year was the first time Colorado State allowed students to emphasize a practice area. You could study mixed, small or large animals. Our class was assembled in an auditorium and we were to indicate our choice by writing names on a blackboard. I signed under “small animal” and as I was walking back to my seat one of the large animal surgeons grabbed my arm and said, “You dumb cluck, you put your name on the wrong list. You’re supposed to be on the other end of the blackboard.”
I said, “No, I’m changing my mind.”
I got some flack from the administration and my family, but stuck to my decision. Dr. Don Lowe was the hospital director at Colorado State back then. He gave our class a little talk about internships and Dr. Herman and others told me that an internship was a good idea. I applied for post-graduate training versus heading to practice. I was accepted at the Animal Medical Center of New York City for the intern year 1975-76.
The Animal Medical Center staff included several recently board-certified veterinarians who were hard-charging, demanding mentors. In medicine we had Drs. Michael Schear, Larry Tilley, Jerry Johnson and Dick Scott. Surgery included Drs. Dick Green, Tom Greiner, Bob Olds, Ken Sinabaldi and others. They were all unbelievably bright and demanded excellence.
Dr. Bill Kay was AMC’s Chief of Staff. He was one of the founding diplomates of American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and he was very supportive of board certification. The whole place seemed driven toward board certification although I had little knowledge of what it meant, my eyes were opened to the possibility.
The residents at AMC were incredible and a great support group. Essentially the residents kept the interns from getting in too much trouble with the staff. Dr. Tim Allen, a medicine resident, became a close friend. He talked up residencies, but I thought I should enter private practice. I finally decided to send out applications and was accepted at U.C. Davis College of Veterinary Medicine. So it was off to California for a two-year residency in small animal internal medicine.
That was an interesting choice because the Davis faculty was not very supportive of board certification. They favored the PhD route. Fortunately in the middle of my residency, Dr. Larry Cowgill was recruited. He was a Davis grad who had earned a PhD at the University of Pennsylvania, but was also board-certified in small and internal medicine. He impressed me with his knowledge and his supportiveness for the residency program. He was a great role model and mentor and drove me to pursue board certification, which I accomplished in 1980.
It goes back to the post-World War II history of veterinary medicine in a way. University teaching hospitals started to become rather sophisticated after World War II, and some veterinarians began limiting their practice to small or large animals and other specialty areas. Clinicians that taught in the veterinary schools were often well-known area practitioners recruited to come back to the schools and teach in the clinical years. There was a divide between the clinicians and the basic scientists who, for the most part, had earned DVM and PhD degrees and were narrowly focused in their research areas.
As clinical medicine and surgery became more and more sophisticated, clinicians in the teaching programs became more and more specialized. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, the idea of board certification mimicking what MDs do came to the fore.
Pathology might have been first, but the surgeons and internal medicine came along about the same time and created the programs that led to the American Veterinary College of Veterinary Surgeons and the American Veterinary College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and many others. Board certification became the essential credential for clinicians. You did an internship, and a focused residency and then you sat for boards. I was the 92nd certified member of ACVIM in 1980. In 2018 the membership exceeds 1500.
Fast forward twenty, thirty years and the people who are in the forefront have completed an internship, residency, board certification and PhD which means they’re spending five to seven years in post DVM training. It’s quite a gauntlet. Again, that’s part of the evolution of the whole amazing world of specialized veterinary medicine.
That’s quite a bit of training. Do you think there is enough distinction between the new veterinary certification programs in the U.S. that are popping up versus the path of a board-certified diplomate, and does the public know the difference?
It’s worrisome. European veterinary medicine has had a tendency to create certificate programs although they do have several specialty colleges now and they are growing in prominence and doing well.
For instance you might get a certificate in dentistry because you spent several days with a dental specialist improving your skills. So you get a certificate for your wall. The question becomes, how do clients separate a certificate holder from a boarded specialist who has spent three to four years in advanced training? Unfortunately some certificates can be obtained largely by paying a fee. The consumer must be cautious!
As I finished training I again thought I would go into practice. Some of the residents from AMC had opened a specialty practice in Los Angeles. I was very interested in that opportunity. But Dr. Don Strombeck who was my advisor strongly pushed me to continue in academia. He felt that if I went into practice it would be hard to return to a university position.
There were few spots open but I was fortunate to get hired as an Assistant Professor at Auburn University. It was quite a difference to go from Northern California to East Alabama but it was there that I met the love of my life, my dear wife Rhoda. She was trained as a commercial artist but had transitioned to medical illustration and worked at the Learning Resource Center for the Auburn Veterinary College. We were married in 1979 and had thirty-six wonderful years together. Sadly she succumbed to post operative complications in late 2015.
Her children, Elizabeth and David, became mine through adoption and continue to be the lights of my life. Elizabeth has her mother’s talent and works as a graphic designer in San Francisco. David, his wife Jeanny and their children, my grandchildren, Gabrielle and Ky live in North Carolina. David served in the U.S. Marines for twenty years and retired as a Major.
It sounds you were all set! What led to your decision to leave Auburn and join Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Inc.?
I was a tenured member of the graduate faculty, an associate professor and had twelve years of experience at Auburn. Then came the Peggy Lee moment. If you remember her song where the refrain was, “Is that all there is?” If that’s all there is, let’s keep on dancing.
My daughter was graduating from high school and my son was in college. My darling wife was not satisfied with her job. I had just come from an unpleasant administrative meeting about failing a student, sat down at my desk, opened the AVMA journal and noticed an advertisement looking for a representative for Hill’s in the Southeast.
I had experience with Hill’s in a variety of areas. My old friend, Dr. Tim Allen had been recruited to Mark Morris Associates (MMA) along with Dr. Debbie Davenport, Dr. Steve Crane and others who were all friends. MMA was the R&D provider for Hill’s in those days.
I’m looking at that ad and thought, “Well what the heck? I know Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins, I’ll call her. I dialed Hill’s in Topeka, it rings twice, they answer, I said, “I’d like to speak to Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins.” It rings twice, she answers. Now what are the odds of that happening? Highly unlikely!
We chat, and she says, “Well, you know, it’d be wonderful if you were interested in joining us, but you don’t want that job. You’d come to Topeka and join me as an Associate Director under Dr. Mara. So it would be Jack Mara, you and me in the Department of Veterinary Affairs.”
I said, “That sounds interesting.”
“Send me your CV.”
“Okay.”
So I sent my CV. And of course I got over my frustration and more or less forgot about the interaction. Many weeks later I answer a phone call and the fellow wanted to know if we could set up an interview.
I said, “Interview for what?” He said, ‘Well I thought you were interested in joining Hill’s Pet Nutrition.”
I said, “Oh that! Well, let me think about it.”
Eventually I travelled to Topeka and literally, I’m there two hours. I meet with Dr. Mara, Human Resources and one other person, and that was it.
I said, “Wow, we spend more time interviewing janitors than that.”
I didn’t hear anything from Hill’s for a long time. I did ultimately get called back and the interview lasted three exhaustive days. It ended up being a wonderful opportunity at just the right time.
Jack Mara was spectacular to work with. He was one of a kind.
Hill’s was an incredible growth experience. Prior to joining Hill’s I had very little experience in personnel management. All of a sudden I had nine employees under a Colgate system utilizing an aggressive performance review process and I had a sizable budget to manage.
Unfortunately not too long after I arrived Dr. Mara had health problems so I found myself defending the budget at the annual review. I was able to use some data from Colgate Oral Pharmaceuticals to demonstrate the importance of our programs. We kept our budget, much to my relief!
The Hill’s experience was my on the job MBA. Incredibly smart people surrounded me. Jim Humphrey was my boss most of that time. He was supportive and helped me understand corporate life. Bob Wheeler was chairman and he was a very effective leader. Hill’s grew from a tiny little entity to a great big company under his many years of guidance.
I was only there six years, but it was six years of intense learning. Of course you and I got to work together at the launch of Prescription Diet t/s, and more specifically on “Pets Need Dental Care, Too” which was another big moment. There were a lot of big moments in those years but that was a big one for sure.
Ever since I’ve known you, no matter what the situation, you never lost your cool. You just take it in. I think you are known for that. What keeps you “Guy Cool” in crisis after crisis?
Often, there is a lot of churning inside. Again it goes back to my upbringing. My mother was volatile, but my dad was one of those guys who just went with the flow. He was a hardworking, self-taught guy and he just took things in stride. I always tried to emulate my dad in that way.
I also had the great luck of working for incredible people in Vietnam. Lieutenant-Colonel V. P. McGlone was a boss of mine who was every inch a Marine and one who quietly commanded respect. He never raised his voice. It’s a bit of a cliché in proper personnel management, but true–If you’re going to correct someone you address the behavior, you don’t denigrate the person. He was unbelievably good at that.
I used to tell people, “You will probably never hear me yell. In fact if you wish to worry it’s when I get really quiet. If my voice starts to go away, it may mean that I’m near a boiling point, so be careful.”
The way we act under stress may be inborn but much is modeled on behavior we observe and learn from. I never saw that yelling ever solved much.
That was quite a transition. I knew the Animal Medical Center was going through a bit of a rough patch. I had been approached about applying, and had said no. I was happy in Topeka. Living in New York did not appeal to me!
I was at my desk in Topeka when Don Lowe called. He had retired from the University at California, Davis, but we had remained close.
Don was always interesting. When he was nervous he would stutter a little. Even though he could talk for ten straight hours without ever stuttering once. So he starts our conversation with, “G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G Guy?” “I’ve been told you’re not applying for the position at the Animal Medical Center.”
I said, “Now how the hell do you know that?” He said, “Word gets around. Let me talk to you.”
We talked. Of course at the end of it, I thought maybe I should try. As things sometimes do they worked out. We had just purchased a house with the main floor and second floor completely shredded by a remodeling crew. Fortunately the basement was finished, but my wife Rhoda adeptly oversaw a major kitchen renovation and multiple other updates as I went off to New York.
The change over in leadership was not easy. When I look back at the AMC years the first three were tough, but rewarding because although we lost some good people we were able to get the organization moving in the right direction. The training programs improved, and our residents made good progress toward board certification. We had pretty smooth sailing for the last seven years I was there and the endowment doubled. We hired good people and had great support from the Animal Medical Center Board of Trustees.
We had some great lunches in New York.
Yes we did and New York was one of Rhoda’s favorite places in the world.
When I look back on it I’ve had this incredibly lucky career because every time I thought it was time to do something different, something great popped up. I was in New York, and of course Rhoda was very happy, and I was satisfied, but things were changing. The chairman of the board was wonderful but she was ill. I didn’t know how the transition of board leadership might play out.
Dr. Charlie Vail, who was past president at the Western Veterinary Conference, came to town for the Belmont race. He stopped by for a tour of the hospital and a lunch. Then he traveled to Washington, DC and was complaining to a friend of mine, Dr. Dean Goeldner, that volunteer jobs were becoming a pain. He was head of a search committee for the assistant director at Western Veterinary Conference, and couldn’t find anyone he liked.
Dean said, “Did you ask Pidgeon? I think he might be interested in moving.”
Charlie said, “No, no. He’s perfectly happy there.”
He said, “I’d call him if I were you.”
Charlie calls on a Wednesday and I flew to Vegas that weekend. Rhoda and I went out the following weekend and I took the job. Rhoda was not happy at first but she ultimately became fond of the desert, and actually enjoyed our time out there.
I was hired to help oversee the construction of the Oquendo Center that the Western Veterinarian Conference had in planning. Ultimately we built about seventy thousand square feet for continuing education. Dr. Steve Crane and I were partners on the project along with a number of the board members, especially the late Dr. Randy Ezell.
We opened the Oquendo Center in the midst of the 2009 downturn. Dr. Ann Johnson put me in touch with companies doing continuing education for MDs. We were able to bring in revenue by leasing space for MD CE. At times we had veterinarians and MDs concurrently studying at the Oquendo Center. That was an accomplishment that worked well, opened some new vistas and saved us from financial distress.
I understand that WVC will enlarge the Oquendo Center so it can accommodate more MDs. There will be two areas for MDs and a dedicated area for veterinarians so they can run three programs at once. That’s pretty exciting! I was very happy to play a part and I was able to transition to retirement at just the right time.
Is there any chance of coming out of retirement?
I doubt it. I’m pretty satisfied. I’ve got two grandkids that I need to spoil, and
my daughter is in San Francisco. I need to enjoy that city and the wine district. My golf game needs a lot of work and I enjoy butchering wood, so I’ll be busy enough!
After I lost Rhoda I managed to sell the historic home we bought when we moved to Rhoda’s hometown in Virginia. I’ve moved to one of these 55-plus retirement communities, which tickles me because it’s marketed as an active adult lifestyle community. But they mow the grass, they remove the snow, and they clean the gutters. My fireplace is gas and comes on with a switch. I can only garden in containers out front. The active part of it is a little bit of a tongue-in-cheek I think.
It seems the status symbol here is a high quality pickle ball paddle.
But it’s fun to relax and look back on a wonderful career.
What are the attributes about board service that are especially meaningful to you that might help other leaders decide to take on volunteer service?
It’s important to find an organization that suits your passion. In my case, ACVIM was clearly aligned with what I was hoping to do in my professional life. I had such wonderful role models who I hoped to emulate.
Once you find something you like, start small. Volunteer for a committee or something clearly defined and just get your feet wet. Then build from there.
The thing that’s so rewarding about service is the people you meet and learn from. The Board of Regents of ACVIM includes a representative from each of the five specialties so I worked with specialists with very different backgrounds. I always felt I gained far more from those experiences than I ever gave.
I understand millennials are pressed for time and are less inclined to become involved with organizations. I sure hope that changes with time. It would be a shame if younger generations miss the opportunities that come with volunteer work and the chance to network with exceptional people.
Is there anything we’ve missed or anything you’d like to add?
One of my greatest satisfactions is to see former students go on to do great work. I was thinking about Dr. Larry Adams the other day, for example. He was a student of mine at Auburn who completed a PhD and board certification. He is a professor at Purdue University and is doing exceptional work on kidney disorders for dogs and cats. The evolution of the veterinary profession is spectacular to watch. If I’ve had a little bit to do with launching a few careers, I can rest easy!
I very much appreciate what you’re doing for all of us, and especially for me. The recognition is dear and I wish you many more years of great health and successful business adventures!
On behalf of the profession to which you have given so much, and for me personally, thank you Guy. I have always enjoyed our visits together, and truly appreciate your participation as a Germinder20 Power of Pink Honoree. Although you say you are retired, you are always welcome back for a story anytime!
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