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Longtime CVM faculty member, administrator retires

Dr. Tom Vickroy

Dr. Tom Vickroy, a longtime UF College of Veterinary Medicine faculty member and administrator who most recently served as executive associate dean, retired in June after 32 years of service with the college.

The college celebrated him with its first-ever virtual retirement send-off on June 15, during which the college’s interim dean, Dr. Dana Zimmel, and others extended their congratulations online. Vickroy also delivered parting remarks, thanking colleagues from his own and other departments, the dean’s office, and many other teams and offices that serve the college and the UF Veterinary Hospitals and have been in some way, a part of his professional life at UFCVM.

“So many of you have contributed to my life in many ways you don’t know,” Vickroy said. “After Dr. Zimmel announced my impending retirement, I received numerous emails of thanks from many of you, but the irony is, I’m the one who has benefited most from this (experience at UFCVM). I want to again express my sincere thanks to all of you for what you’ve done and many of you will never understand that.”

Although he didn’t want to name names — there were too many people he might miss — Vickroy did specifically acknowledge his wife, Jane.

“She has been by my side for four decades and has really impacted my life in so many ways,” he said. “One thing I can say with certainty is, I would not be here today without her. She has definitely helped me be overall a better person.”

He said that some have asked him what advice he might pass along to help them be successful in their careers.

“I would say resilience, but also respect; excellence but also empathy,” Vickroy said.

As for what he plans to do in retirement, he said he regarded retirement as “a step in the next room in my life.”

“I’m excited, and I’m looking forward to the unknowns,” he said. “One constant I will have is my wife Jane, and I certainly look forward to spending more time with her. The rest is a chapter to unfold.”

A professor in the college’s department of physiological sciences since joining UF in 1988, Vickroy wore many administrative hats at the college over the past decade. He twice served as interim associate dean for students and instruction, now academic and student affairs, working on the administrative teams of former deans Glen Hoffsis and Jim Lloyd. Between 2014 and 2016, he served as both executive associate dean and interim associate dean for students and instruction simultaneously.

Throughout his tenure at UF, Vickroy also taught basic and clinical veterinary pharmacology to professional D.V.M. students and previously taught graduate students both in the colleges of veterinary medicine and medicine, well as graduate students in the online forensic toxicology program. He received several awards for teaching excellence, including the College of Veterinary Class of 1996 Teacher of the Year and the Clinical Sciences Teacher of the Year in 2004.

His achievements in veterinary pharmacology included several national leadership roles, including regional animal drug coordinator for the Minor-Use Animal Drug Program and national co-director of the Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank, or FARAD. Following his retirement, the program will now be led by Dr. Fiona Maunsell, a clinical assistant professor in the department of large animal clinical sciences.