Carlos Risco, D.V.M. (’80), and Julio Ibañez, D.V.M. (’80), forged a lasting relationship when they arrived at the University of Florida as undergraduate students and soon found themselves embarking on a unique life experience. They were to be “firsts” — among 40 students admitted to the newly founded UF College of Veterinary Medicine. Likewise, their professors were also new to the experience of creating and implementing a new curriculum in a major university.

“I can recall everyone in our class and can put a face to each name to this day,” Ibañez said. “We jokingly called ourselves guinea pigs, but our professors, who were experts in their fields, were motivated, having taken on new roles as leaders in this new college. They were heavily invested in giving us their attention, which added to that special feeling of being in the first class.”

The friends each followed a different path in their studies and careers. Risco, now serving as dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Oklahoma State University, found his career passion in large animal studies. Ibañez found his as a small animal veterinarian.

Although their career paths diverged, their friendship remained very close over the 40 years that followed, each coming back to serve their alma mater. After 10 years in dairy practice, Risco returned to the college as a professor of food animal medicine and reproduction specialist, and was appointed as chair of the department of large animal clinical services in 2012. He held that position until his departure for Oklahoma in 2018. Ibañez recently retired after 39 years of practice in a small animal hospital in Miami, but has remained active in the college’s alumni council, previously serving as chairman and now as a member of the executive board.

The UF College of Veterinary Medicine was officially established by the Florida Legislature in 1965. It would become the sixth college to join the university’s academic health center — known today as UF Health. Charles Cornelius, Ph.D., D.V.M. was named as the founding dean, in 1971. Ground was broken for the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital on a 120-acre site west of the UF Health main campus on Archer Road in 1975, and a year later, ground was broken for the Basic Science Building, on the main campus. That same year, 1976, the charter class of 40 veterinary students was admitted to the college.

Risco and Ibañez shared their memories of what it was like for those students, who would become the first class to graduate from the UF College of Veterinary Medicine in 1980, and for their professors.

They relayed their professors’ commitment to quality teaching — going out of their way to answer questions and instruct — and the tremendous responsibility they and their classmates felt. There was no class before them to seek guidance from; they were all the “firsts.”

Risco and Ibañez each recalled the faculty and those in leadership at the new college, and their influence on the students. The classmates particularly noted their former professors’ ability to teach and to relate the importance of basic knowledge in becoming a successful veterinarian. They said their professors’ demeanor and how they communicated to the students, their commitment to the client and emphasis on the animal patient, was woven into everything they taught.

“Our classmates were wonderful,” said Risco. “We all attended every class, and took our education very seriously, as did our professors. We understood that we would be setting the bar for those who would follow for many years to come.”

Ibañez also reflected on that first year of veterinary school, noting that many of the faculty were not much older than the students, which added to the comradery and access they had to their professors.

“The faculty were dedicated and brilliant and they were at the top of their fields,” Ibanez said. “Their dedication is what challenged every student in our class to want to become the best veterinarians we could be.”

Born in Panama, Ibañez immigrated to Miami with his family at age 15. He came with a dream to get the best education. That dream turned into a goal that was realized through the education and training he received at UF.

From high school through community college, as he learned to speak English, d Ibañez worked in a small animal hospital under the supervision of a young veterinarian, Branham Garth, D.V.M., who was originally from Georgia. Ibanez joked that he had to also learn “Southern English.” After graduating from high school, sadly, his father passed away. Garth became an important role model in d Ibañez life, and was a catalyst in his interest in joining the first veterinary class at UF.

Ibañez names many of the UF faculty he studied under who were very approachable and good with students, and credits them with the quality of teaching he and others received. After his graduation in 1980, he traveled full circle, returning to Miami to begin his veterinary career with his early mentor at the same animal hospital. Armed with knowledge and clinical training from so many specialty clinicians at UF, he particularly recalled the instruction and skills of his professor in small animal internal medicine, Michael Schaer, D.V.M., in his own approach to animal patient care.

Throughout his career, Ibañez enjoyed mentoring young student interns interested in pursuing veterinary medicine, hoping to inspire them as he was inspired by his mentors. He remains engaged with UF students, speaking to a group of students last year in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, and serving as a mentor for a pre-veterinary club on campus.

Like his good friend, Julio, Risco’s parents also first immigrated from Cuba to Miami when he was 6 years old, but soon moved to Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Risco was surrounded by tropical birds, cattle and other animals in these places, and his early life seemed to set him on a trajectory toward veterinary medicine. Also, like Ibañez, he felt gratitude for the guidance of mentors. His father was a physician, which sparked a natural interest in science and medicine. But it was a neighbor, a veterinarian for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Arecibo, who sparked Risco’s interest in dairy cows, often taking him on visits to local farms. When Risco was 12, his family moved to Dayton, Ohio, where he participated in 4-H and raised a horse. From there, his family moved to back to Florida, to St. Petersburg, where he completed high school and his first two years of college.

Risco visited the UF campus before transferring in the fall of 1974. While exploring the animal science department, he met Sidney Marshall, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition in dairy science.

“Dr. Marshall greeted me and took the time to personally review the coursework in dairy science and explain that his department offered a pre-veterinary program and the plans for the new vet school to open in 1976,” said Risco. “That experience convinced me to major in dairy science and to be a student in the first vet school class in Florida.”

Their pre-veterinary school advisor, the late Wyland Cripe, D.V.M., then a professor in dairy science, knew something about “firsts.” He had been a member of the first graduating class at the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine. Cripe then went on to work for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization at an international research institute in Venezuela, researching the utilization of water buffalo for human resources in developing countries. Recruited by UF to help build and establish the new College of Veterinary Medicine, he was the college’s first dean of students and public services.

“Dr. Cripe played an important role in guiding me,” said Risco. “He was the veterinarian in charge of the dairy unit, and I had the opportunity to work closely with him for my two years as an undergraduate to gain hands-on experience.”

Ibañez echoed his admiration for Crips, the former dean of students, saying, “He was like a father figure, and very influential to all of us in the first class.”

James Himes, V.M.D., Ph.D., also now deceased, similarly played a formative role. He taught a required pre-veterinary course, anatomy and physiology of domestic animals.

“Dr. Himes was a major influence on my passion to learn physiology,” said Risco. “To this day, I consider him to be one of the best teachers I have had.”

Himes, at the time an assistant professor of veterinary science in the College of Agriculture, received a joint appointment in the newly forming College of Veterinary Medicine in 1973, soon becoming the director of what was then known as the Office of Veterinary Medical Education. He went on to serve as assistant dean and later associate dean in charge of students and instruction until he retired in 1992. Himes remained active in college life until he died in 2008.

Risco also credits two former professors — Maarten Drost, D.V.M., and the late Ken Braun, D.V.M. — for their formative roles in preparing him for large animal and reproductive veterinary medicine.

“These were wonderful professors and prototype clinical scholars. The impact they had on my early professional and personal growth was immeasurable,” Risco said.

After graduating, with recommendations from Drs. Drost and Braun, Risco worked for a successful dairy practice in California for 10 years, until he decided to return to UF academia where he might pay forward the instruction and mentorship that he so appreciated as a student. His former teachers now became his colleagues. It was a difficult decision to leave a comfortable practice to become a professor, Risco said. But he was confident in his clinical skills and teaching abilities, having mentored technicians and veterinary students in his practice. He knew he would need to build his research experience and once again, he found the knowledge and expertise among the faculty whom he saw dedicated to the university’s research mission through quality teaching and clinical service.

As a new member of the faculty, Risco particularly credits the mentorship of William Thatcher, Ph.D., a graduate research professor emeritus in the department of animal sciences, and Louis Archbald, D.V.M., Ph.D., a professor emeritus of theriogenology.

“Drs. Thatcher and Archbald embodied the ideals of mutual respect, collegiality, common goals, and sense of purpose in how to be a successful researcher at a preeminent university like the University of Florida,” Risco said. “I credit my former UF colleagues and mentors for helping me in my long journey has taken me further than I dreamed.”

He relayed the most important lesson he learned as both a student and a faculty member at UF: “Whenever you can, offer your help to collaborate, give that extra effort, and ask how you can be a part of the mission.”