Veterinary College Dean Emeritus Wins Award for Distinguished Service

The American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges has honored Dr. Oscar Fletcher, dean emeritus of the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, with the Billy E. Hooper Award for Distinguished Service for 2025. 

The award recognizes an individual whose leadership and vision made a significant contribution to academic veterinary medicine and the veterinary profession. Fletcher, who holds a DVM and a Ph.D., served as the NC State veterinary college’s dean from 1992 to 2004 and then as a professor in the Department of Population Health and Pathobiology until his retirement in 2018. He also is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists and a founding diplomate of the American College of Poultry Veterinarians.

Fletcher was recognized with the award during a ceremony at the AAVMC’s annual Catalyze conference Thursday. 

Dr. Warwick Arden, executive vice chancellor and provost at NC State University, followed Fletcher as dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine in 2004.

“During his long tenure as dean, Oscar built the College of Veterinary Medicine into one of the strongest colleges in the country, both in terms of clinics, research and extension and engagement across the state,” Arden said. “He also had a huge impact on philanthropy, developing a very close relationship with Randall Terry, whose foundation went on to fund a significant portion of the Companion Animal Veterinary Medical Center and several other important things.” 

Fletcher had an extraordinary impact on the university as a whole, Arden said, positioning the College of Veterinary Medicine to be a central player, not an isolated entity, at NC State University.

Fletcher, who began his career as a veterinary pathologist, was the second dean of the veterinary college, which the state of North Carolina established in 1978.  He followed founding dean Dr. Terrence Curtin.

Fletcher counts the extension of the Centennial Campus Authority to the veterinary college’s campus and the development of the R.B. Terry Charitable Foundation among his top accomplishments as dean.

“Success is about close to 100% relationships with people,” he said, citing his time spent with state lawmakers and with Randall B. Terry Jr. “It’s those personal things that make a difference.”

Fletcher’s veterinary expertise and his easy ability to forge connections made him the perfect leader at the perfect time for a veterinary college in North Carolina, a state currently ranked first in poultry and egg cash receipts, second in turkey production and third in hog production.

“Veterinary medicine, poultry health and North Carolina have been so incredibly fortunate to have Oscar Fletcher here for as long as we have,” said Dr. Kate Meurs, the Randall B. Terry Jr. dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine. “Dr Fletcher’s passion for the food- and farm-animal industries, be that poultry, swine or cattle and their relationship within the state, has really encouraged us to continue to excel at training programs for our graduate students and clinical residents.”

From 2004 to 2018, Fletcher served as a professor of poultry health management, mentoring countless students and supporting research projects involving the respiratory and nervous systems and infectious diseases. He is the author or co-author of nearly 150 scientific journal articles.

“This veterinary college is ranked as one of the top in the country,” Arden said. “It has remarkable faculty, remarkable clinical activity and remarkable research outreach to the largest agricultural industries of the state. Clearly, Oscar has had a huge impact on the state, as well as the college.” 

Arden said Fletcher also was an early leader in interdisciplinary collaboration, making the veterinary college among the first at NC State to emphasize the importance of working across fields. 

“I personally feel very indebted to him, and it’s been a joy to work with him,” he added.

Fletcher grew up in South Carolina on a dairy farm built by his father and grandfather. He decided he wanted to become a veterinarian after admiring the doctors who visited and cared for his family’s animals.

Even today Fletcher remains a treasured mentor on the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine campus, meeting regularly with Meurs and offering his expertise to the latest veterinarians-in-training.

When the college launched the Randall B. Terry Jr. Rural Veterinary Scholars Program last summer, Fletcher regularly met with the six participants who were dispatched to farms and stables across North Carolina to work with partner veterinarians, mostly in counties that have a federally recognized shortage of food animal veterinarians.

“I’m just so thrilled and delighted that he’s still engaged,” said Meurs, who has been dean since 2022. “I’m so thankful to the AAVMC for recognizing him with this honor.”