Date of Birth 8/3/23

Place of Birth Polo MO

Education:

Graduate of University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, 1950

Dr. M. Dean Conrad’s father, Dr. Henry C. Conrad, Jr., was a veterinarian in Polo MO which is why Dr. Dean Conrad “nearly always” wanted to be a veterinarian.  After his discharge from the U.S. Navy in 1946, Dr. Conrad attended the new School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Missouri-Columbia from 1946-50.  Being the first class at the new school, Dr. Conrad indicates students “were treated as seniors for four years and got to go on clinical calls, etc., especially with Dr. J. E. Weinman (who taught anatomy to the elder Dr. Conrad earlier at the Kansas City Veterinary College).  

After graduation, Dr. Conrad settled into a general practice, predominantly swine and beef cattle, in Plattsburg MO where he continued to live and work for 40 years.  He started his career buying an old chicken hatchery of which he tore down 1/3 of same and built large animal facilities.  His practice remained at this location for the first twenty years.  His father was in practice only 25 miles east of his practice.  Dr. Conrad’s first case was that of two horses that had been hit by a truck. 

In 1970, Dr. Conrad took on a new partner, Dr. J. R. Taylor, and together they built the new hospital.  He has since retired in Liberty MO where he enjoys travel and reading. 

Dr. Conrad is a lifetime honorary AVMA and MVMA member. 

Dr. Conrad feels the most important advancement in veterinary medicine during his career was the eradication of hog cholera, and the discovery of successful vaccines to prevent diseases like feline leukemia, etc.  When asked how he feels veterinary medicine will change in the next ten years, his reply is “almost extinction or demise of large animal or food animal practitioners and the small size family farm that I grew up servicing!”

Dr. Conrad’s wife of 42 years, Lynn, passed away in 1988.  Their family consists of four sons and one daughter.  Children range in ages from forty to fifty with four granddaughters and two grandsons. He has been married to Janie, his second wife, for nearly 10 years.  She and her late husband were former clients.