American Veterinary Medical Association honors K-State’s Dr. Noordsy with its President's Award

Dr. Gregory Hammer, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and 1973 K-State veterinary alumnus, will be presenting one of three annual President’s Awards to Dr. John L. Noordsy, Sioux Falls, S.D. The award is in friendship and recognition of a lifetime of dedication to mentoring, teaching, training and molding young men and women and instilling in them the respect and dedication to the science, art, and practice of veterinary medicine that has guided his life.

Dr. Noordsy is an internationally recognized veterinary surgeon with emphasis on bovine surgery. His career spans 62 years and involves postgraduate regulatory work, private practice in food animal medicine and surgery in rural South Dakota for 13 years, and 30 years in academics at the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine, where he served as an instructor and assistant interim dean.

Dr. Noordsy received his early education at a rural, one-room elementary school and rural high school. He earned a bachelor’s degree from South Dakota State College, Brookings, in 1944. Dr. Noordsy received his DVM from K-State in 1946 in an accelerated degree program and a master’s degree in pathology from K-State in 1962, although he also performed part of his graduate studies at Iowa State University, Ames.

Important mentors in his professional career include his parents, who would not let him accept the loss of fingers on his right hand at age 4 as a handicap. Also instrumental in his academic pursuits were Ms. Ballweg, grade school teacher, Mr. Simmons, high school typing teacher, Ms. Hartwig, zoology instructor, and KSU graduate, at South Dakota State College, Dr. C. C. Lipp, Head, Veterinary Science Department, South Dakota State College, and Dr. Fayne Oberst, large animal clinician and major professor at KSU.

Dr. Noordsy's professional accomplishments include serving as Secretary of the South Dakota Veterinary Medical Association for six years, as President of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, and as a member and chair of the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Council on Veterinary Service. He received three major university teaching awards while at KSU, was a major speaker in four international bovine symposiums and in 2001 received the Amstutz-Williams Award from the American Association of Bovine Practitioners.

Dr. Noordsy has published an internationally recognized textbook entitled “Food Animal Surgery.” The most recent edition (4th) was in collaboration with a former graduate student, N. Kent Ames, DVM, MS, professor in large animal clinical sciences, Michigan State University, Ann Arbor. Dr. Noordsy has also been a contributing author on four veterinary textbooks and has published approximately 75 scientific articles in veterinary medical journals.

The AVMA President’s Award was established in 1991 to recognize individuals and groups inside and outside veterinary medicine, who have made a positive impact on animal, human, or public health, veterinary organizations, and the profession.