UF College of Veterinary Medicine
Public Relations Office

Pioneer of small animal reproduction dies

by SARAH CAREY

Shown below is Dr. Victor Shille, pictured
in 2001 in his former office in the
Veterinary Academic Building.

The college and the world of theriogenology lost a friend when Dr. Victor Shille died Sept. 9 at the age of 74. His family lost a devoted husband and father.

Although Shille had technically retired from the UF College of Veterinary Medicine in 1993 — he had served as a professor of small animal theriogenology at UF since 1978 — he remained involved in college life and events.

He kept in close touch with Dr. Maarten Drost, a longtime friend and UF CVM colleague, and others with the Food Animal Reproduction and Medicine Service. He attended the dedication of Deriso Hall in 2006 and most recently, a meeting held by Dean Glen Hoffsis for professors emeriti of the college.

Many consider Shille the grandfather of the study of small animal reproduction.

Born in Yugoslavia to Russian parents, Shille spent his youth in Germany and grew up in Southern California , where his parents immigrated during World War II. He was fluent in Russian, German and English; could read Serbo-Croatian and could speak conversational Swedish and Spanish.

Shille received his D.V.M. from the University of California/Davis and then spent 14 years in a solo small animal practice prior to pursuing his Ph.D. His doctoral work focused on follicular development and ovulation in cats. He increased his international perspective by completing a postdoctoral program at the Swedish Agricultural College in Uppsala .

When he joined the UF veterinary college as a member of the founding faculty, he worked under the first dean, the late Dr. Charles Cornelius.

Shille had a prestigious career in academia, where he was widely acknowledged for his abilities in and devotion to teaching. He was UF's Norden Distinguished Professor in 1988 and was Teacher of the Year in 1991. He received the Bartlett Award from the American College of Theriogenologists in 1992 and was the recipient of the college alumni council's first-ever Distinguished Service Award in 2001.

Shille also served for nearly 25 years as chief editor of Theriogenology , an international journal of animal reproduction. Ten of those years were spent post-retirement, with Shille working quietly with his small staff of copy editors on the second floor of the Veterinary Academic Building .

Shille suffered from Parkinson's disease, which made his life and ability to use his considerable clinical skills increasingly difficult in recent years. In a farewell message printed in Theriogenology , he stated that he had retired twice from UF — the first time from clinical duties due to “Mr. Parkinson” because “trembling hands neither inspire confidence in a client nor do they make surgery possible.” The second retirement was in 2003 from the journal because “Parkinsonism was advancing.”

However, Shille never really retired, said his friend, Drost.

“He continued to help authors and graduate students who spoke languages other than English with their manuscripts,” Drost said.

Over the past four years, Shille continued to present workshops of English for speakers of other languages with his wife, Patt. These workshops, focused on how to write a scientific paper, were presented contemporaneously with the annual conference of the International Embryo Transfer Society — which awarded him its Distinguished Service Award in 2006 — and were held in Quebec, Hungary, France, The Netherlands and China.

“Dr. Shille's philosophy was that language must not be a barrier to publication,” Drost said. “The most difficult problem is not in grammar, punctuation or syntax, but in cultural differences in expression of ideas, he believed.”