UF College of Veterinary Medicine
Public Relations Office

Former CVM faculty member, radiologist dies

by SARAH CAREY

Dr. Norman Ackerman, a board-certified veterinary
radiologist and former faculty member at the
University of Florida College of Veterinary
Medicine, has died.

Known by his peers and friends as a quiet and humble man as well as a great teacher, Ackerman, 65, was a member of UF’s veterinary faculty from 1979 to 1994.

“Dr. Ackerman was one of our earliest faculty members and a stalwart leader of our radiology service,” said Dr. Colin Burrows, who helped recruit Ackerman back to UF two years ago to serve as a locum in the veterinary college’s radiology service.

“A new generation of students and clinicians were able to appreciate his skills,” Burrows said. “He was a universally revered radiologist and the profession is poorer for his passing.”

A 1966 graduate of Auburn University’s School of Veterinary Medicine, Ackerman served for three years as base veterinarian for the United States Air Force in Japan and in Thailand. He completed his residency in radiology at the University of Missouri and later served as an assistant professor of radiology on the veterinary school faculties at the University of Missouri and the University of California, Davis prior to coming to UF.

He was a professor of veterinary radiology and had served as chief of the college’s radiology service when he left UF in 1994. He subsequently practiced in Louisville, Ky. and in Huntsville, Ala.

“Dr. Ackerman was one of the reasons I went into veterinary radiology,” said Dr. Clifford “Kip” Berry, a 1984 graduate of the UF veterinary college. “Just after my residency when I came back and taught at UF for a year, he prepared me for the oral board examination, which I passed, and protected me so that I could do the appropriate research for a tenure track position.”
“He was great pillar in my life and was a fatherly figure to me,” Berry added. “There is nothing that I can say that would ever truly express my appreciation for his help and what he did for me, or my admiration for him.”

Ackerman became board certified as a Diplomate in the American College of Veterinary Radiology in 1974 and also was a member of the Radiological Society of North America, the American Veterinary Medical Association, Phi Zeta and the Association of Military Surgeons.
“Dr. Ackerman was a highly respected member of the ACVR,” said Dr. Tod Drost, the group’s current president and an associate professor at Ohio State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Drost is a 1991 graduate of the UF veterinary college.

“He was one of the pillars of ACVR and respected as a great diagnostic radiologist. Even after he left UF, he continued to work in the clinic there and elsewhere when needed. Anytime the clinic was short of people, he helped.”

Drost said Ackerman had coauthored two editions of a textbook, “Small Animal Radiology and Ultrasonography,” with Ron Burk.

“My colleagues and I never refer to the title of the book, we just always call it ‘Burk and Ackerman,’” Drost said.

“People do say that, or they call it Ackerman and Burk, because ‘A’ is before ‘B,’” said Crispin Spencer, D.V.M., a former UF veterinary college faculty member and board-certified veterinary radiologist who worked closely with Ackerman for many years while at UF.
Spencer said Ackerman’s name “nearly always ended up first” on almost every list of any committee or group he ever belonged to, because of its spelling.

“There were not very many veterinary radiologists at all when Norm first became board certified in 1974,” Spencer said. “At that time, he was one of the most revered radiologists in the country. Everybody knew of his skill and dedication to the profession. It was quite a feat to have him end up at Florida.”

In 15 years they worked together at UF, Spencer said he and Ackerman grew together as clinicians, seeing many of the same cases.

“You work with someone every day, day in and day out, and go to professional meetings together, you almost start to think alike,” Spencer said. “In some ways, it’s like being married.”
But he added, “In all the time we knew each other, we never had a cross word.”

Spencer said Ackerman was a kind and concerned teacher dedicated to writing and publishing clinically pertinent material for the student, the practitioner and his radiological colleagues.

“He was “100 percent behind the students and their getting an excellent education,” Spencer said. “He might have come across sometimes as being a little tough on them, but the truth was, he just really wanted the students to develop excellence.”

Behind the scenes, the private and reserved Ackerman, who was also an accomplished photographer and an avid reader, was known to have a quick and dry wit. He could be unusually kind and unexpectedly generous in his dealings with friends and colleagues.

Monica Merlo, D.V.M., owner of Merlo Veterinary Imaging, Essex, U.K., relayed an experience she had with Ackerman when she was a young veterinarian living in Italy back in 1995.

“I was visiting the U.S. for a couple of months and I remember reading his book and thinking, maybe I should visit him,” Merlo recalled. “I was sure he would refuse, as he did not know me. There was no e-mail at the time in Italy, so I wrote to him and was very surprised when he accepted immediately. At that time, he and his family had just relocated to Kentucky. When months later, I finally made my trip, he was not only willing to have me visit, his family also gave me hospitality in their home.”

Merlo spent two weeks with the Ackerman family. “It was a great experience,” she said. “I was really grateful for what he did for me.”

Ackerman had extensive experience in MRI and CT scanning, and in addition to his textbook, authored or coauthored numerous scientific articles in the field of veterinary radiology.
He is survived by his wife, Lourdes Corman, M.D., of Huntsville and two children.