Charles Richard Dorn passed away April 27, 2020. He was born June 12, 1933 in London Ohio. His parents Howard Field Dorn and Lucille Margaret (Bethards) Dorn named him Charles after his grandfather. He went by Richard and his nickname Dick. Richard grew up working on the family farms in London and Midway, and was the first in his family to go to university.
At The Ohio State University he pledged Sigma Chi fraternity and completed his degree as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (1958) before enlisting in the Air Force and heading to Europe. In Paris, France, he was assistant to the Preventive Medicine Officer, before moving to RAF Burderop Park in England, returning to the United States with the title Captain Veterinary Officer in 1960.
After completing a Masters in Public Health at Harvard University (1962), he did Postdoctoral training at the University of California Berkeley, where he met his future wife Barbara Jane Monroe on a skiing trip. They were married December 20, 1964. This was followed by a professional career in university research, teaching and administration, first at the University of Missouri and after 1976 as Chair of the Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine at The Ohio State University. He began his research career with work on feline leukemia and was known for his work on e. coli, salmonella and environmental health. He was on the Board of Trustees at the Columbus Zoo and helped the American Kennel Association when they were working on mapping the genome of the dog. He was very widely known in the veterinary world, not only as a well known scholar, but as a very kind man. Even with the demands of his high pressure job he still was active in the Air Force. He was in the reserves and served for twenty years working his way up to Colonel. After retirement from OSU (1992) he was still an active contributor to his profession and his country, working part-time and serving with the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a Community Relations Specialist.
Richard and Barbara enjoyed sailing together for many years. They had a twenty-four-foot sailboat at Alum Creek Lake that they took to Sanibel Island, Florida, in the winter. After his Fulbright Scholarship at UNAM Medical School in Mexico City in 1994, Dick and Barbara enjoyed traveling to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico and spending lots of time there with the local people. Back in Ohio, Dick enjoyed attending Liberty Presbyterian Church and helping them build houses with Habitat for Humanity.
Richard was preceded in death by his parents Howard and Lucille, and his sister Marilyn Rose (Dorn) Sullivan, and is survived by his wife Barbara Jane (Monroe) Dorn who lives at Wesley Glen Retirement Community Columbus, Ohio, his son Michael Dorn, in Kansas City, Missouri, and daughters Lorissa (Dorn) Wright in Hilliard, Ohio, and Margot Dorn, in Brooklyn, New York. He was very attentive to his grandchildren: Collin Kenneth Wright, Michelle Loraine Wright and Russell Leverett Dorn.
A Memorial Service will be held at a later date at Liberty Presbyterian Church. Interment will be at the Range Township Cemetery in Sedalia, Ohio. In lieu of flowers, those who wish may contribute to The Alzheimer's Foundation. Arrangements made by Schoedinger Worthington Chapel.
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