Hall of Fame Member Biographies

Michael D. Lorenz

Teaching has been the passion and life story of Michael D. Lorenz.  Earning a B.S. degree in Pre-Veterinary Medicine in 1967 from Oklahoma State University, he went on to obtain his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from that institution in 1969.  After an internship and residency at Cornell University, he went on to teach at the University of Georgia from 1972 to 1982.  He then combined administrative work with teaching, becoming an Associate Dean at the University of Georgia and moved in 1988 to become Dean of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University.  In 1997 he returned to his alma mater as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Small Animal Medicine; in 2001 he became interim dean and in 2004 Dean of Veterinary Medicine.  He retired from administration in 2011 but still actively teaches courses and clinical practice.  During his career, he compiled a mountain of scholarship: 44 articles, 13 book chapters, and 9 books.  Since 1970, he has presented over 400 seminars and short courses at national and international meetings and has conducted seminars in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico, Italy, and Taiwan.  His service to his profession includes committee work for the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges, serving as Editor-in-Chief of Veterinary Medicine (1985-1988), serving on the editorial board of Biomedia, and being on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association, as well as many other such activities.  Students, however, most appreciate his teaching skills and particularly his attention to clinical practice, in which mentoring plays the most important role.  This devotion to teaching reveals itself in the multitudinous awards Michael Lorenz has won: at the University of Georgia, the Phi Zeta Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Norden Distinguished Teaching Award, the Faculty Teaching Award given by the Class of 1974; at Kansas State University, the 1994 Kansas Veterinarian of the Year Award, the Class of 1997 Faculty Appreciation Award; and at Oklahoma State University, the Norden Distinguished Teaching Award (2000), the Oklahoma State University College of Veterinary Medicine Distinguished Alumni Award (2002), the Oklahoma Veterinarian of the Year Award (2011), and in 2013 the Oklahoma State Regents Distinguished Teaching Award. For these achievements, the OHEHS and the small animals of Oklahoma warmly inducts Michael D. Lorenz into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame.