Dr. John L. Wells graduated from the Kansas City Veterinary College in 1915.  He then spent two years in the Army Veterinary Corps, (World War I), five years in disease control and eradication work with the federal and state governments, sixteen years in general practice and seventeen years in commercial work with Haver-Glover Laboratories of Kansas City serving as veterinary director and editor of the “Haver-Glover Messenger.”

In addition to the positions he held with the Missouri Veterinary Medical Association, Dr. Wells was the first president of the Southwest Missouri Veterinary Medical Association, President of the Kansas City Veterinary Medical Association,  Missouri delegate to the American Veterinary Medical Association House of Representatives, member of the AVMA for over twenty years and past chairman of the Committee on Pharmaceutical Products, member of the U. S. Livestock Sanitary Association and American Veterinary Exhibitors Association. 

Dr. Wells was well known to all members of the Missouri Veterinary Medical Association, being one of its lifetime members and having served as both President and Secretary of the Association.  Dr. Wells was the recipient of the first annual Veterinarian of the Year award from the Missouri Veterinary Medical Association in 1955 awarded at the association’s 63^rd annual meeting and banquet in St. Louis MO. 

Dr. Wells was active in the Boy Scouts in Kansas City, and served as a member of the school board, city council and mayor of his home town of Blue Springs.  He was a member of the board of the First Methodist Church.