It Happened in Crawford County: Ron Chatfield's career journey took him across the US

Ron Chatfield and his older sister, Judy, grew up in Columbus, the children of George and Ann Chatfield. This story is a reminder of how older generations made it through college.

Ron and Judy attended Mifflin High School where Ron played football, ran track, performed in school plays and sang in mixed chorus. He enrolled at OSU and married his classmate, Peggy, at the end of his freshman year. After three years of pre-veterinary study and four years of veterinary training, Ron graduated in 1966 with a doctor of veterinary medicine degree.

Peggy was the primary breadwinner, working as a secretary for North American Aviation, while Ron took jobs to pay for tuition and books. He worked at a fruit stand, a shipping clerk, foreman of a corn de-tasseling crew, yard work, fork-lift operator, building bicycle wheels and plumber's helper. It paid $1.50 per hour, $80 to $100 per week − a lot of money back then.

Although his parents were unable to provide financial support, they contributed in other ways. Living quarters for the Chatfields during college was a 33-by-8-foot trailer set-up behind Ron's parents' house. For the down payment on the trailer, they used the 1947 Pontiac Peggy's grandfather had given her as a high school graduation present.

Basically poor but didn't know it

The trailer was made in Texas and wasn’t equipped for northern winters. On very cold days the waterlines would freeze and then rupture. Ron crawled under the trailer, laying in cold mud to repair them. The home was heated by a small fuel oil furnace barely adequate to heat the space on cold days. They usually ran out of fuel oil at least once each winter because they could only afford to buy small quantities at a time.

It always seemed to happen in the middle of the night. Peggy would bundle up the kids and Ron scooped up the guppies into an empty mayo jar and then they'd head for Ron's parent's home for the rest of the night in warmth.

The trailer's bathroom was so small, they could set on the "throne," rest your head on the bathroom sink and reach over and turn on the tub faucet. When their two children were born, they enclosed the bottom bunk in the back bedroom with dowel rods affectionately called "the cage."

In short, they were poor but didn't know it.

A varied career path begins

After graduation, Ron accepted a position as a small animal clinician at an animal hospital east of Cleveland. He worked long hours for two years before buying his own small animal practice in Columbus. He always thought he would spend his entire career in vet practice, but after five years he embarked on an academic career.

Ron sold his practice and took a faculty position at the OSU Veterinary College, teaching parasitology and physiology. At the same time, he also was enrolled in graduate school and earned both a M.Sc. and PhD degree in pharmacology. To supplement his income, Ron took a job as a restaurant inspector and later the health commissioner position in neighboring Grandview Heights.

After 10 years of teaching, which he loved, and basic scientific research, which he did not enjoy, the Chatfield family left academia for a new career in animal health drug development and moved to Syracuse, New York.

Ron joined the Animal Health Division of Bristol Myers Pharmaceuticals, involved in developing antibiotics and analgesics for use in companion animals. He thoroughly enjoyed clinical research as opposed to basic laboratory research and was privileged to work with some of the top clinicians at various veterinary colleges throughout the country, performing necessary clinical studies to support new animal drug approvals at the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the FDA.

After five short years in Syracuse, Bristol-Myers moved the animal health group from the Finger Lake region in upstate New York to Evansville, Indiana. Ron decided to explore other opportunities and found a newly formed animal health pharmaceutical position in Dallas with the Swiss-owned Sandoz Pharmaceutical Co. (now Novartis).

Landing in Texas for a decade, then to Iowa

Ron and Peggy spent 10 years in Texas, where he was promoted from manager to director and finally to vice president of animal heath development. Then, Sandoz decided to merge the Animal Health division with its much larger Agro-Chemical Division, which also had a VP of development. Ron was offered a position with Sandoz post-merger, as a plant toxicologist in Switzerland.

He wasn’t interested in learning about plants when his training and career was as a veterinarian. Ron was now 53 and had to look for a new position, which he found at Solvay Chemical in St. Paul, Minnesota. After two years as director of animal health pharmaceutical development, Solvay Animal Health was sold to Fort Dodge Laboratories in Ft. Dodge, Iowa, and the 300-plus employees were invited "to pursue other career opportunities."

So far, Ron’s veterinary degree has taken him into many careers, not just caring for animals.

His story will continue next week.Go online for more of Mary Fox’s stories and photos on bucyrustelegraphforum.com. If you are interested in sharing a story, write Mary Fox, 931 Marion Road, Bucyrus, OH 44820 or email littlefoxfactory@columbus.rr.com.

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Ron Chatfield and his varied career stops took him across the country