Dr. William Harker Rhodes, professor emeritus of radiology, died September 29, 2011, at the Coatesville VA Medical Center at the age of 85.
Dr. Rhodes was born in Trenton, NJ. Following high school, he served as a radiology technician in the US Navy from 1943-1946, after which he graduated from New York University in 1951 with a BA degree. In 1955 he graduated with a VMD from the University of Pennsylvania, followed by three years of radiology training and earned a master of medical science in radiology from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Medicine.
From 1955 until his retirement in 1985, as professor emeritus of radiology, he was a faculty member in the School of Veterinary Medicine with a joint appointment in radiology at the School of Medicine.
He received a Lindback Award for Teaching in 1965 and was a frequent lecturer at numerous state and national veterinary meetings. Dr. Rhodes played a major role in the development of veterinary radiology that included a founding member and past president of the Educators in Veterinary Radiologic Science (the first veterinary radiology organization in US) and then the American Veterinary Radiologic Society, a member of numerous AVMA and AAHA advisory committees and the New York Academy of Science. He was a charter member and chair of the Organizing Committee for the American Board of Veterinary Radiology (the first clinical specialty approved by the AVMA), now the American College of Veterinary Radiology. He was also a founding member of the International Veterinary Radiology Society.
He had received national and international recognition. The American College of Radiology bestowed its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, to him in 1999, and the best oral and poster awards of the International Veterinary Radiology Association are named in his honor.
He served as the first editor of Veterinary Radiology and Ultrasound, from 1963-1979, a journal that was initially named the Journal of the American Veterinary Radiology Society and in 1979 renamed again as Veterinary Radiology.
He is survived by his former wife, Augustine Janeway Rhodes; son, Gus and wife, Cindy; son, Sandy and wife, Paula Coble; daughter, Anne and husband, Robert Amos; son, Chris and wife, Carol; son, Jason and wife, Lisa; and grandchildren, Nathan Amos, Sarah Amos, Mariah Rhodes, Elizabeth Rhodes, and Christina Rhodes.
Memorial gifts may be sent to the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. Checks should be made payable to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania with the notation in the memo line “In Memory of Dr. Wm. Harker Rhodes,” and mailed to the Penn Veterinary Medicine Office of Development and Alumni Relations, 3800 Spruce Street, Suite 172 E, Philadelphia, PA 19104.