When president-elect Dr. Ron Brodersen approached me at last year's meeting about giving the Howard Dunne Memorial Lecture this year, I was incredibly honored and humbled. I have been a member of this organization for 35 years. It has been my professional home more so than any of the other professional organizations to which I belong. Ron and I are fellow farm boys, classmates and friends, graduating in 1979 from Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine. While we were in veterinary school, we visited each other's home farms, his in Nebraska and mine in Iowa, and met each other's families. Ron and I have lived in different states since graduation, he in Nebraska and I in Iowa and Indiana. Our friendship has always been the kind that is easily re-kindled whenever we see each other. This year's theme, "Beyond Our Oath, Integrity, Intensity, Professionalism" epitomizes what I know of Ron as he lives out his various roles as husband, father, friend, swine practitioner and leader in this organization. Ron later called to discuss specifics and asked me to talk about integrity as it relates to each of us as swine veterinarians and to us as an organization. My feelings of being honored and humbled gave way to feelings of fear and inadequacy. Integrity is something to which I aspire, but too often fall short. No one is more aware of this than my wife of 34 years, Sarah. No one has been more instrumental in my growth in integrity than Sarah. She has modeled it before me. She has been my conscience when mine has failed. She has been consistently courageous enough to brave my displeasure when she confronts me and has done so with a genuine concern and compassion that compels my attention.
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