Fincher, Myron G.

Myron G. Fincher was born in Corfu, New York, on November 25, 1898 to Charles Colby Fincher and Cora (Ross) Fincher. He was the youngest of five children. He graduated from high school at the age of sixteen, then worked a number of odd jobs for a year. Then, in 1916, he decided to attend Cornell University's New York State Veterinary College. Upon graduation in 1920, Fincher was offered a position in the College as an instructor in the Department of Medicine and Obstetrics. He earned a Master of Science degree, worked through the ranks, became full professor in 1938, and in 1942 was named Chair of the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Obstetrics and Director of the Ambulatory Clinic, a position he held until his retirement in 1965.

Fincher was also the director of the New York State Mastitis Research and Control program. In 1946, New York State Governor Thomas E. Dewey asked Fincher to create the program, and Cornell was given a large sum of money to implement it. Fincher set up a number of laboratories in order to regulate the mastitis research in the state. The program now operates as Quality Milk Production Services in the College's Diagnostic Laboratory.

Fincher retired from Cornell in 1965, in order to help found a new veterinary college at Ahmadu University in Northern Nigeria, with funding from U.S.A.I.D. (United States Agency for International Development ). From 1965-67, he served there as head of the Department of Surgery and Medicine. When he returned from Nigeria he became a consultant for the Bureau of Veterinary Medicine at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He maintained this position until he retired in 1971.

During his career he was widely consulted for his research on the diseases of horses and cattle, specifically in his areas of expertise, infertility and mastitis. He was active in the state, national and international professional organizations, and received many distinguished awards and honors, including the AVMA's Borden Award in 1954, and the New York State Veterinary Medical Association's Veterinarian of the Year in 1963.

Fincher died at the age of 83 on March 2, 1981, in Syracuse, New York. He was survived by his wife, Evelyn (Davis) Fincher and his three daughters, Joyce, Myra and Esther. He is memorialized at the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine with an annual prize awarded to a fourth-year student who has demonstrated the best work in courses dealing with large-animal obstetrics and reproductive disorders

• 1898: Born on November 25, in Corfu, New York
• 1915: Graduated from Batavia High School
• 1920: Received his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University
• 1924: Married Evelyn Davis (also a Cornell graduate)
• 1925: Joyce (Fincher) Coye, the Fincher's first daughter, born
• 1925: Received a Masters in Science from Cornell University
• 1926: Named assistant professor at Cornell
• 1926 - 1927 : Spent a sabbatical year at Thoroughbred Horse Farm, Lexington, Kentucky
• 1927: Esther Margaret (Fincher) Hays born
• 1938: Named full professor at Cornell
• 1940: Myra Jean (Fincher) Tennant born
• 1940: Spent a sabbatical year teaching at Ohio State Veterinary College and Texas A&M
• 1942: Named Chair of the Department of Medicine and Obstetrics and Director of the Ambulatory Clinic, N.Y.S. Veterinary College
• 1943 - 1944 : Served as Acting Dean of the N.Y. State Veterinary College while Dean William A. Hagan was in Germany
• 1944: Elected president of the Alpha Chapter of Phi Zeta, the national veterinary honor society
• 1946: Named director of the N.Y.S. Mastitis Research and Control Program
• 1954: Received the Borden Award from the American Veterinary Medical Association
• 1958 - 1959 : Spent five months as a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Thessaloniki, in Salonica, Greece, where he received an honorary Ph.D.
• 1960: Traveled to Peru, Uruguay and Brazil as a specialist for the International Education Exchange Service for the U.S. Department of State
• 1963: Named Veterinarian of the Year by the New York State Veterinary Medical Society
• 1965: Retired from Cornell University and the Mastitis Research and Control Program
• 1965 - 1967 : Headed the Department of Surgery and Medicine at Ahmadu Bello University, Northern Nigeria
• 1967 - 1971 : Consultant for the Bureau of Veterinary Medicine, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• 1973: Organized an equine breeding farm in Citanova-March, Italy
• 1981: Died on March 2, in Syracuse, New York

From the guide to the Myron G. Fincher papers, 1908-1993, (Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)