NCSU Libraries Focus Online
Volume 27 number 2 - Winter 2007
Library Development: Seven Days a Week and a County Vet's Practice,
Doc Brown Endowment Profile
By Michael Gulley, Library Development
The Friends of the Library is pleased to announce the establishment
of the James E. and Jane Brown Endowment, created
by James Everett Brown, Class of 1939, and his wife, Jane Brown.
The endowment will provide support for the NCSU Libraries’ collections
in all subjects and formats. “Doc Brown,” as he is
known throughout Northampton County, North Carolina, has been a
practicing veterinarian for more than sixty years. At eighty-seven
years of age, Doc Brown still opens his veterinary office in Rich
Square seven days a week. His office is a small, three-room clinic,
which he built with his father in 1943 as an addition to the family’s
barn.
Doc Brown was interested in animals. With the support and encouragement
of his father, he attended NC State to obtain his bachelors degree
in animal production in 1939. He then attended Auburn University
and graduated with his doctorate in veterinary science in 1943.
In describing his time at NC State, Doc Brown said, “It was
an incredibly eye-opening experience. I developed many lifelong
friendships that not only helped me build my practice, but allowed
me to better appreciate the great state of North Carolina.”
After returning to his hometown, he immediately began establishing
his practice. For a time, he was one of the few veterinaries operating
in northeastern North Carolina. Initially, Brown treated farm animals
throughout the surrounding six or seven counties. He well understood
how important farm animals were to a family’s livelihood,
because he had grown up on a farm where his family’s very
survival depended on the health of its animals. He jokingly said, “For
the first part of my career, I spent six days a week traveling
more than 100 miles a day tending to others’ animals and
one [day] at home tending to our family farm and its animals. My
work never ended, but I loved every minute.” Doc Brown continued
to travel and tend to large farm animals, treating pets only in
the evenings, usually as a favor to friends and neighbors, until
he underwent heart surgery in 1992. Today his practice is focused
mostly on cats and dogs. His work ethic and commitment to treating
animals continues to be an inspiration.
Brown’s office has not changed a bit since 1943, except
that he no longer boards animals overnight and the connected barn
has not been used in years. The office bears little resemblance
to a modern veterinary office, but this does not detract from what
people really come to the office for--a doctor who truly cares
about his community and its animals with more than sixty years
of experience. Visits are not scheduled and people just drop by
when they can. As Doc Brown says, “I am always open, and
if the office isn’t open, people can just come up to the
house.” This is quite convenient, as his house is located
only a few feet from the office.
Doc Brown is extremely thankful for the resources and experiences
that NC State provided him many years ago and felt that he needed
to do something to ensure that the same experience would be available
to future students. Brown says that he and his late wife decided
to establish the James E. and Jane Brown Endowment because “the
resources and support that the library has provided me and the
entire state of North Carolina over these many years can not ever
truly be repaid, but I wanted to do something that would benefit
future students.”
For information on this and other library endowments, please call
the library’s development officer, Jim Mulvey, at (919) 513-3339;
or send an electronic-mail message to jim_mulvey@ncsu.edu.
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