Finkelstein, Susan I

English

ScholarlyCommons@Penn

Bellwether MagazineVolume 1Number 69 Winter 2009 Article 71-1-2009The Summer of ’42: So Begins Dr. Raker’s Six-Decade Odyssey of Healing, Teaching andLearningSusan I. FinkelsteinUniversity of PennsylvaniaThis paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. http://repository.upenn.edu/bellwether/vol1/iss69/7For more information, please contact libraryrepository@pobox.upenn.edu.The Summer of ’42: So Begins Dr. Raker’s Six-Decade Odyssey of Healing,Teaching and Learning14 125TH ANNIVERSARY BELLWETHER WINTER 2009memorablefacultySixty-six years ago, at PennVet, a young man named CharlieRaker was named valedictorian of that year’s graduatingclass.The Class of 1942 was the 55th class to graduatefrom the school, and the first to graduate while the United Stateswas officially at war.That year,PennVet adopted an acceleratededucation program in response to the needs created byWorldWar II.The last class on the regular program —Dr. Raker’sclass—graduated in June, and classes resumed that July. Until1946, new classes started every nine months.The Class of 1942 was notable for another reason: thesingular quality of its graduates.David Detweiler, forinstance, went on to found PennVet’s Section ofCardiology and has been called the “father of veterinarycardiology.” Julius Fabricant, still a faculty member atCornell, became a leading researcher in avian health.Andthen there was Charles W. Raker. Joining PennVet’s fac-ulty in 1950 after eight years in private practice, he is arecognized expert on upper-respiratory surgical tech-niques in horses and a pioneer in the field of equine jointsurgery. Dr. Raker also helped grow New Bolton Center,purchased by the school in 1952, into a premier treatmentcenter for horses and farm animals. But perhaps it is hiscontribution as a teacher that Dr. Raker remembersmost fondly.“I think the experience of eight years in practice waswhat students appreciated most,” Dr. Raker explains.“Because it was practical; it was what they were going toexperience when they got out. I used to present studentswith a case they would have and ask them,‘What are yougoing to do? How are you going to handle it?’ ‘Well, I’llBY SUSAN I. FINKELSTEIN“To teach is to learn twice.”~ Joseph Joubert, PenséesClinicians examine a horse in the courtyard ofthe Old Quadrangle Building in Philadelphia, c.1950s. Plans for renovation of the Philadelphiacampus include restoring this courtyard—nowa parking lot—back to its original state of apark-like space.WWW.VET.UPENN.EDU/BELLWETHER 15take some blood and I’ll do thisand this,’ they would say. I said,‘Wait a minute, there’s no labo-ratory around here.You’re on afarm and here’s a sick animaland you have to make a deci-sion and treat it. How are yougoing to proceed?’And thatmade the students stop andthink.We didn’t have all theluxuries of a lab right acrossthe street or down the hallback then.”Of course that wasn’t theonly difference between veteri-nary education then and now.Long before his teaching days,in 1938, with just a year ofundergraduate study under hisbelt, 18-year-old Charliedecided he’d apply to vetschool.The “admissionsprocess” was quick and to thepoint.“I was asked if I knewhow to milk a cow, and I’d had experience with that, so I said yes,” he remembers.“And then they asked, ‘Can you hook up a team of horses and I said yes to that,too. So, okay, then I was admitted.”Similarly, Dr. Raker was fast-tracked into a surgery position in 1953—with littleprevious surgical experience.The school’s one large-animal surgeon had decided toreturn to Canada, and Dr. Raker was presented with an unexpected offer.“Dr.Mark Allam [dean at the time] and Dr. John Beck [V’30, professor of medicine]asked me if I would agree to accept a position as assistant professor of surgery. Isaid, ‘Well, I’ll have to think about this, gentlemen.’ Eventually, I told them I woulddo it under two conditions. I said, ‘First of all, I’m not a large-animal surgeon andI’ve had no training.And I don’t really feel qualified to do what you’re asking meto do on some of these very expensive Thoroughbred racehorses. Really, you mustsend me somewhere to get some kind of training as a large-animal surgeon.’Andthen I said, ‘Number two, if I can’t do this job, I don’t want you to dump me bythe roadside or fire me, because I like teaching and I want to stay here.’Anyway,they agreed to that. So I went to Cornell for two weeks and worked with Dr.Gordon Danks, who originally had been at Bolton Farm. I observed quite a bit ofhorse surgery, but I never made an incision, I never placed a suture and I neverpicked up an instrument. I just looked.And that was how I had my surgical training.”Despite such modest preparation, Dr. Raker was charged with taking over an ailingreferral service still in the Old Quadrangle Building in Philadelphia, with its circus-like ambiance of trucks, trailers and vans unloading horses, cows and swine—inter-spersed with grooms and students exercising animals—all around a dirt patch of landknown as “fecal field.”An endoscopic examination performed by Dr. Charles Raker (right) withassistance from fourth-year student Luke M. Martin (Class of 1981).Penn Vet is proud to acknowl-edge members of the facultywho have given 25 or moreyears of invaluable service tothe school. Highlighted in thissection is Dr. CharlesW. Raker,the Lawrence Baker SheppardProfessor Emeritus of Surgeryfor the University of PennsylvaniaSchool of Veterinary Medicine.Dr. Bruce D. FreedmanDr. David T. GalliganDr. Urs GigerDr. Michaela A. KristulaDr. Midge LeitchDr. Meryl P. LittmanDr. James B. LokDr. Benson B. MartinDr. James A. OrsiniDr. Paul G. OrsiniDr. Jonathan E. PalmerDr.Thomas D. ParsonsDr. Virginia B. ReefDr. DeanW. RichardsonDr. Michael W. RossDr. Patricia L. SertichDr. Corinne R. SweeneyDr. RaymondW. SweeneyDr. Robert H.WhitlockDr. JeffreyWortmanDr. Donald A. AbtDr. Carl E. AronsonDr. Richard C. BartholomewDr. Leonard BelloDr. Charles BensonDr. Darryl BieryDr. Kenneth BoveeDr. JamesW. BuchananDr.William ChalupaDr. Richard O. DaviesDr. David DetweilerDr. Josephine M. DeublerDr.William DonawickDr. Robert EckroadeDr. Loren H. EvansDr. Elaine P. HammelDr. Peter J. HandDr. Dudley E. JohnstonDr. Colin JohnstoneDr. Lin V. KleinDr. Alan KlideDr. David McDevittDr. Julius MelbinDr. Neil MooreDr. Adrian MorrisonDr. David NunamakerDr. Donald PattersonDr. CharlesW. RakerDr. Charles F. ReidDr.W. Harker RhodesDr. Harold RozmiarekDr. Lionel F. RubinDr. Robert J. RutmanDr. Robert M. SchwartzmanDr. Sheldon SteinbergDr.Wesley C.WilcoxDr. BenjaminWolfDr. AndrewWoodQuarter-Century ClubE M E R I T U SF AC U LT Ymemorablefaculty16 125TH ANNIVERSARY BELLWETHER WINTER 2009“I can still see those big horse vans drivingup on 39th Street in front of that big irongate,” Dr. Raker remembers with a smile,“and they’d bring these horses off onto thatbrick walkway and these horses had neverbeen on bricks in their lives before!”Almost single-handedly, Dr. Raker proce-eded to transform PennVet’s equine serviceinto one that drew top-quality sport horsesfrom around the country, and the waitinglist for elective surgery grew dramatically.“Iwent to Philadelphia every day from thebeginning of 1954 until we moved out here[New Bolton Center] in January 1964.Andthat’s when I saw a whole lot of horses.Somehow I’d gotten a reputation—a goodone, I don’t know how it happened—but Ihad those 17 stalls in Philadelphia full ofhorses all the time. I handled the entire case-load until 1957—cows, horses, everything. Iwas on call 365 days a year. Plus I also was teachinglarge-animal surgery.”It was this tremendous workload that prompted Dr.Raker to start the school’s first internship program inequine medicine and surgery. (In fact, one of the firstfemale interns in the field,Dr. Olive K. Britt, got herstart with Dr. Raker.) “I got my first intern in ’57.And thatwas one of our own graduates,Dr.Alan Sayers. Nextyear, I got another intern, and next year, another—andthen I decided I was going to start a residency program.From then on, it just kept mushrooming.We always hadtwo or three interns and a couple of residents on duty.They helped me with cases.And eventually some of themstayed on and became fully qualified staff members. It wasquite a busy place at that time.”In 1967, the renowned Lawrence Baker Sheppard—president of the Hanover Shoe company, head of the U.S.Trotting Association and owner of Hanover Shoe Farm,one of the largest Standardbred horse-breeding facilities inthe United States—funded the nation’s first endowed chairof veterinary surgery at a veterinary school. Dr. Rakerserved in this role through his retirement in 1985, nowholding the Lawrence Baker Sheppard EmeritusProfessorship of Surgery for the University ofPennsylvania School ofVeterinary Medicine.Although he has been officially out of the classroom for23 years, Professor is still a way of being—not just a title—for “Dr. Charlie” (as he signs his e-mails). He continues tomentor veterinary students, help with externships and aidin the job search for new graduates. Since 1998, up untilthis year, Dr. Raker served as the Opportunity ScholarshipFund committee chair and reported approximately 132scholarships totaling more than $1 million for qualifyingveterinary students.The CharlesW. Raker Professorship inEquine Surgery, held by Dr. Dean Richardson, is anongoing tribute paid to him by grateful clients, residents,interns and students.“One of many things that I admireabout Dr. Raker was his willingness to accept innovation,”Dr. Richardson says.“A good example is that he was oneof the very few surgeons with a lot of experience doingtraditional joint surgeries, but he was solely responsible forbuying arthroscopic equipment in the very early 1980sand telling us young surgeons to figure out how to use it.He knew arthroscopy would supplant one of the majorprocedures for which he was known, but he also knew thefuture wasn’t waiting. He was generous in every possibleway to those of us lucky enough to be under him.”Andstill, nearly everyWednesday, you can find Dr. Raker atNew Bolton Center, visiting with colleagues, talking withstudents, answering questions.“The best teachers learnfrom their students, and keep learning,” he says with asmile.“I just learn so much from them.”memorablefacultyFormer students Scott Palmer,V'76, and Taryn Gassert,V'07, with their professor,Charles Raker,V'42. Photo by Sabina Louise Pierce.

The Summer of ’42: So Begins Dr. Raker’s Six-Decade Odyssey of Healing, Teaching and Learning

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The Summer of ’42: So Begins Dr. Raker’s Six-Decade Odyssey of Healing, Teaching and Learning

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