J. A. Hende

Served as dean 1963 – 1973

  • Received the McCoy Award, one of the most prestigious award made by the college, in 1989.
  • A Canadian by birth, he spent his entire professional career in clinical veterinary medicine in Canada and in this country.
  • As a farm boy from Manitoba, his main interests, according to his own description, were “baseball and draft horses.”
  • Following his graduation from the Ontario Veterinary College in 1939, he earned an Master’s of Science degree from Cornell University.
  • Remained in the northeast to be the director of the first cooperative artificial insemination center in North America.
  • From there he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois where, in his words, “my duties included everything from clinical work in the university’s flocks and herds to post-mortem room operator and lecturer on poultry diseases to unsuspecting farmers.”
  • During World War II, he served in the Royal Canadian Air Force, beginning as a navigator and eventually being assigned to Cambridge University to advise that institution on their artificial insemination program.
  • Following the war, Dr. Henderson returned to Illinois for a brief period before moving on to the faculty at Ontario Veterinary College. He remained there for 17 years, the last 13 of which he served as Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Surgery.
  • Collaborated with D. C. Blood to write the book Veterinary Medicine, now in its seventh edition. Few veterinary students complete their DVM education without having become acquainted with this well-known work.
  • In 1963, he immigrated to the United States to become the Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Washington State University.
  • Leaving WSU, he retired to his native Canada. In his words: “Since then I have devoted my talents to gardening, chopping wood, fishing, clam digging, looking after a small stud of Norwegian fjord horses, and watching with hope, but small confidence, the Mariners and Seahawks on TV.”