OSU Vet Med Alumnus Dr. Griffin Honored

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Dr. Dee Griffin, an Oklahoma State University College of Veterinary Medicine alumnus, recently received the Amstutz Williams Award, which is the highest award given by the American Association of Bovine Practitioners.

The award recognizes Griffin’s outstanding service to the profession throughout his 45-year career in veterinary medicine.

“I’m proud to be from OSU’s CVM,” Griffin said. “We had exceptional faculty, including Dr. Eric Williams, a name sake for this AABP honor. Our faculty was tough, competent and most of all driven to help us become the best we could be. I still strive to make them proud they devoted a measure of their life to me.”

Griffin earned his DVM degree from OSU in 1975, followed by a master’s degree in Veterinary Pathology and Animal Science from Purdue University in 1978. He spent several years practicing beef cattle medicine before joining the University of Nebraska, where he taught at the Great Plains Veterinary Educational Center. In 2016, he joined the faculty at Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, where he worked until retiring earlier this year.

Throughout his career Griffin has earned numerous awards for his dedication and service including the AABP Award for Excellence in Preventive Medicine, the Academy of Veterinary Consultants’ Consultant of the Year Award and a Distinguished Alumni Award from OSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine to name a few.

“Over the years I have received more recognitions than I deserve, including this one, but even being inducted into the Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame didn’t mean as much to me as when I received my college’s Distinguished Alumni recognition," Griffin said. "We don’t need to beat OU in football for it to be a great day to be an alum.”

The Amstutz Williams Award honors the long and distinguished service of the late Dr. Harold E. Amstutz, the AABP’s secretary-treasurer and executive vice president until 1993, and the late Dr. Eric I. Williams, the editor of the Bovine Practitioner and Proceedings Book from 1969 to 1998.

The award has only been given to 11 individuals since its establishment in 1986.