“He really had the students at heart during his entire career. He’d do anything for them from help them find part-time jobs to find a place for them to live. And he had a tremendously dry sense of humor people of all ages could relate to. Dick was an extraordinary friend, scholar, teacher and administrator.”—John Gorham, WSU veterinary professor and USDA research leader.

Richard B. Wescott was 62, when he died in a Spokane hospital on Oct. 6, 1994 after a long illness. But what the retired Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in
Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine is best remembered for is his appreciation and respect for students. Perhaps, as he once put it, it was because he never stopped learning himself.

Wescott was born on July 8, 1932 in Chicago. In 1954, Wescott married Judy Potts in Oak Park, Ill. He went on to earn three degrees from the University of Wisconsin including a Ph.D. in 1965. He had previously earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 1958 from the University of Minnesota. A veterinary parasitologist, Wescott came to WSU in 1971 as a full professor after being on the faculty at the University of Missouri. Over the next 23 years, he was on occasion acting chair of the Department of Veterinary Pathology and later the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology. For more than 20 years he was involved with students and the veterinary curriculum and was named Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in 1987. At the time of his retirement in May of 1994, Wescott had the distinction of having taught more than 25 percent of all the veterinary students who ever graduated from WSU.

Wescott was a member of seven professional societies. During his distinguished career he received 28 academic awards ranging from international recognition for his research to seven Outstanding Professorships in the college for his teaching abilities. He also personally trained 13 graduate students. At WSU’s veterinary graduation ceremonies on the eve of his retirement in May, Wescott was presented with an Honorary WSU Alumnus Award by Dean Borje Gustafsson. A prolific academic writer, Wescott published 17 chapters in various veterinary texts. He was also first author or co-author of 108 academic articles and abstracts. During his remarkable career, he was an assistant editor for three professional journals: the American Journal of Veterinary Research, Laboratory Animal Science, and the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. The Richard B. Wescott D.V.M. Scholarship Fund was endowed in December 1994 in his memory.

Wescott Memorial Parasitology Lectures