Shared stories Submitted by faculty, staff and students

Enjoy reading stories from your fellow CVM Community.

Submitted by Dr. Michael Bowie

Photo submission

Camille Johnson

Mother of Dr. Michael Bowie, Member of the Piscataway Indian Nation

The Piscataway Tribe has existed for some time, but was recognized in 2012. We are registered members of the tribe and I am still learning about my Native American heritage since I also have members from the Piscataway tribe on my maternal grandmother’s side and Blackfoot tribe on my maternal grandfather’s side. The Piscataway Indians have a rich culture and this would have been the first year that I would have been welcomed to the tribe during an annual ceremony, but that was changed due to COVID-19.

Submitted by Dr. Richard Hill

Here is a story for you to put on our website about a Native American DVM who I had the good fortune to supervise when he was a student and I was a resident at the University of Pennsylvania. Thurman Hornbuckle was a Cherokee: (https://localwiki.org/cu/Thurman_Hornbuckle) and quite a character. Alas, he is not with us any more but I think he would have liked you all to know about his time in clinic.

Thurman struggled his first time through the internal medicine service and we asked him to come through the service again. The second time, he was outstanding; it was like night and day and I asked Thurman what had changed. It was then that I heard that he had had little formal Western education until a senior in high school. Clearly, all he needed at the vet school was a little extra time to catch up. To reinforce that point, I looked him up recently on the internet to see what had happened to him and was delighted to see that he had become a professor at the University of Illinois. I was also sad to see that he had passed away because he was quite a character and I would have loved to meet him again.

He was certainly a little larger than life. Like now at UF, we were seeing a lot of cases and Thurman came up to me one evening as we were working to ask me a favor. He asked me to call his wife to convince her that he was at work and not off chasing another woman. He said it was important because he was afraid she might shoot him. I expressed some skepticism but he said she had shot him once before and showed me the bullet scar in his arm. Fortunately, I was able to convince her and Thurman survived to graduate and go on to better things but he left me with a great story. More importantly, he showed me why we need to give people with a late start in formal education a chance to shine and that scores on exams do not always show what a person from a different background can achieve when given time and encouragement.

Submitted by ADAM STERN @ IFAS

4H youth sponsored

Horse Riding Training

Seminole Indian Reservation near Okeechobee, Florida

4H Ifas Sponsored

Cattle Ranching

Seminole Indian Reservation near Okeechobee, FL

ways to CONNECT

CVM Campus

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