Randall Terry’s Vision

The College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has initiated a two-year project to build the Randall B. Terry, Jr. Companion Animal Veterinary Medical Center. When completed in 2011, the 110,000 square-foot “Terry Center” is expected to a national model for excellence in companion animal medicine.

The new referral hospital is made possible by a $20 million pledge from the R.B. Terry, Jr. Charitable Foundation—the largest private gift ever given to North Carolina State University. The North Carolina General Assembly appropriated $38 million for the facility and additional private funds will pay for the remainder of the $75 million project.

The veterinary medical center is named in honor of the late philanthropist and former president of the North Carolina Veterinary Medical Foundation (NCVMF). Mr. Terry, who died in May 2004, had previously donated more than $4 million to the CVM in challenge grants and student scholarships while he was serving two terms as NCVMF president.

"The Randall B. Terry, Jr. Companion Animal Veterinary Medical Center is a testament to Mr. Terry’s love of animals,” says Dean Warwick Arden. “When completed, this state-of-the-art medical center will serve as a national model and will provide an outstanding environment in which our faculty and students can promote animal health."

The businessman, who was the publisher of the High Point Enterprise and partner in the International Home Furnishing Center in High Point, NC, became a longtime friend of the CVM after Nike, one of his six golden retrievers, was treated at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH).

“The commitment Randall Terry has shown to the CVM is a reflection of the power of the human-animal bond,” says Dr. Oscar Fletcher, past CVM dean and acquaintance of Terry’s. “His great affection for his golden retrievers led him to encourage our college leadership and advance veterinary medicine in a significant way.”

The expansive Terry Center will accommodate more patients. When built in 1982, the current tertiary care VTH had a planned annual capacity of 12,000 cases. Last year private practice veterinarians referred close to 20,000 patients to be diagnosed and treated by hospital staff.

“In the past 20 years there has been a strong trend toward specialization and even sub-specialization within the veterinary profession,” says Dr. Michael Davidson, Associate Dean and Director of Veterinary Medical Services. “The design of the Terry Center will feature separate pavilions for specialty practices as well as cutting-edge technologies for imaging, cardiac care, cancer treatments, internal medicine, and surgery.”

“Mr. Terry’s generosity is transforming the CVM,” says Dean Arden. “Beyond the immediate care for small animals, the Terry Center and the continued support of the Terry Foundation is instrumental in helping us create the Centennial Biomedical Campus and encourages our work in a myriad of areas. These efforts include biomedical research, bio and agro security, food animal health and food safety, ecosystem health, animal welfare, and the critical job training of the next generation of veterinarians and veterinary scientists.”

Updated January 10, 2011