Source: Cheri Ubel, 785-532-4043, ubel@vet.k-state.edu
Photo available. Contact media@k-state.edu or 785-532-6415
News release prepared by: Joe Montgomery, 785-532-4193, jmontgom@vet.k-state.edu
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
ROBERT PHILLIPS TO RECEIVE E.R. FRANK AWARD FROM K-STATE COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE
MANHATTAN -- Robert M. Phillips, professor emeritus of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology at Kansas State University, will receive the 2007 E.R. Frank Award from K-State's College of Veterinary Medicine and its Veterinary Medical Alumni Association. The award will be presented Monday, June 4, as part of the 69th annual Conference for Veterinarians.
The E.R. Frank Award is given to a College of Veterinary Medicine faculty member who displays the same professional essence as Dr. Frank, who was a longtime faculty member in equine surgery and K-State alumnus. Nominees must have at least a 15-year relationship with the college, possess a noteworthy record of service and display an unassuming and unpretentious manner throughout their careers.
"I was fortunate to study surgery from Dr. Frank," said Phillips, who lives in Manhattan. "Dr. Frank wrote the textbook used in the class; it was used at other universities in the United States. It is an honor to receive this award in memory of a distinguished and respected faculty member like Dr. Frank."
Phillips was born in Saskatchewan, Canada. When his father suffered a work accident, the family moved to Elk County, Kan. After a few years, they moved to Wichita, where Phillips graduated from East High School in 1942. He worked in the defense plants and attended Friends University before enlisting in the U.S. Army. After serving in World War II as an Air Corps mechanic and assistant crew chief, Phillips returned from Europe and earned a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from K-State in 1951.
Phillips, along with a classmate, Gene Porter, purchased a mixed practice in Fergus Falls, Minn. Phillips then moved back to Kansas, to Oberlin, in 1953, where he ran a mostly large animal practice until 1969.
Because of the advances in the veterinary field, Phillips decided to go to graduate school. He earned a doctorate in medical microbiology at the University of Georgia in 1972. He then took a position at Jensen-Salsbery Laboratories, Kansas City, Kan., where he developed a trivalent equine encephalomyelitis vaccine and supervised many vaccine testing procedures.
Phillips accepted a virology position at the diagnostic lab at K-State's College of Veterinary Medicine. Phillips, with cooperation from K-State's Harish Minocha, now a professor emeritus of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology, and Richard Consigli, university distinguished professor emeritus of biology, established a functional virus diagnostic lab. Over the years, many new diagnostic tests and virus-isolation procedures were developed and new equipment was installed.
Phillips retired in August 1994 but was an active professor emeritus. When the K-State rabies lab was at risk of closing in 2000 because of difficulties in filling the vacant director's position, Phillips came out of retirement to become director, based on his expertise in rabies diagnostics. His one-year commitment stretched to two and one-half years before his replacement was appointed and trained.
"I enjoyed that group in the rabies lab," Phillips said. "I was supposed to be the director, but they did all the work. They knew what to do and how to do it. I felt fortunate to be there and enjoyed my whole time."
Phillips published numerous articles on microbiology and served on or chaired several committees on large animal diseases. He received the SmithKline Beecham Award for Research Excellence in 1999 and the prestigious E. Walter Morrison Award from the K-State Student Foundation in 2002.
Phillips and his wife, Opal, have four children and six grandchildren.