Shaun Illingworth: This begins an oral history interview with Dr. James Dougherty on February 26, 2024, with Shaun Illingworth. Thank you very much for having me, I really appreciate it.
As we were preparing our first two interviews to be posted on the Internet, you wrote that you have gone through some additional major changes in your life. We would like to add those as well. The first thing would be, you have decided to retire after your long career in veterinary science. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
James Dougherty: Right. Well, when I was reading the original transcript, a couple of those points came up and that's why I thought to write, because there were a lot of continuity [questions]. I said, "Well, [we should] recognize that it had changed." I wasn't at liberty to say when we did the first interview that we were looking into selling the practice, because of all the non-disclosure type things that go on with that type of deal.
Over that summer, we had gone through some negotiations and decided to sell, that it was the time to sell. My partner that's only slightly younger than me, he and I both completely retired, and our younger partner gets the privilege of staying and working to maintain the business. So, it was the right time and [we] took advantage of it.
SI: We talked a lot about the economics of veterinary practices in our second interview. It sounds like you wanted to preserve some of the ethos of your practice even though you were selling it. Can you tell me a little bit about that decision, what goes into that thought process?
JD: There's more personal angles to that than probably practical or rational business angles to that, but we ended up selling to a small (smaller) company versus one of the large mega corporations, with the hopes that they would preserve a lot of the integrity of the practice, philosophies, things like that. So far, it seems like nothing has changed outwardly. I don't know of anyone being exceptionally unhappy or any of those kind of things.
There are some disadvantages to corporate anything. I think it takes longer to order things, it takes longer to have decisions made, things of that nature. In the past, they would just come to one of us and [say], "Can I get this?" and, "Sure," or, "No," and it would be done. So, they've lost that ability, but, otherwise, it seems to be about the same. I've been there as a client multiple times with my own dog and haven't seen any logos taken off the walls or repainting or any of those kinds of things.
It still looks the same. That's important for maintaining the business from their side of the coin, too, because, if they would make drastic changes, everything that we had built would be lost. They would potentially lose a lot of clients that way. So, I would think their goal as well is to maintain the appearance and structure as the same as what we had.
SI: You're completely out. Do you have any kind of role?
JD: No, zero. [laughter] I was just talking to the other partner that left. We were kind of joking around about the fact that that was our decision, that we really didn't want to have to do anything associated with it and just wanted a complete break.
SI: What do you intend to do now?
JD: That's the question of the hour or of the year. [laughter] Right after we sold, I started looking--we moved to another house. So, that created a change in lifestyle. We moved to Wayne, which brought me about twenty minutes closer to Rutgers, twenty minutes closer to Center City, Philadelphia, not a whole lot, but, when it comes to sitting idly in traffic, it's nice to cut out some highways.
So, it did that and brought me closer to places that I went, stores, Whole Foods, things of that nature, and a house that I liked. So, I took advantage of that and stayed involved. Through Rutgers, I'm still on the Board of Governors. Nothing changed through there.
We started finalizing--and the reason why I'd written to you was--we were talking about a scholarship in Perry Halkitis' name, but I wasn't ready at that point to release that I would be the one that would fund it. So, there's work on that. Perry formed a search committee to find the individual and that's good.
[Editor's Note: Dr. Perry Halkitis has served as the Dean of the School of Public Health at Rutgers since 2017. He served as an administrator and Professor of Psychology at New York University from 1998 to 2017.]
I also started--I've always had an interest in the Philadelphia Orchestra. So, I made a gift to the Orchestra and have become a little bit more involved with them and go to more concerts, which is something I didn't do when I worked. We couldn't really go to things during the week. I found myself going to a reception on a Thursday morning, which felt so odd. [laughter] I had to remind myself it was Thursday morning a few times, but it's been good.
Beyond that, I haven't made any solid plans. I always thought I would, because people always say, when people retire, "So, what are you doing now?" Some people have these grand explanations, and most (I found) say, "I don't know," or, "Time just seems to be passing by with other things." So, as long as I have Rutgers and, now, some things at the Orchestra, I think I'm good.
SI: Regarding the scholarship, what are your hopes for it for the future?
JD: With Halkitis?
SI: Yes, just for the record in this interview, what are your reasons and hopes for it?
JD: Okay, I'm sorry, I thought I had touched on that last time.
SI: You did, but I want to put it with this, maybe in a different context.
JD: Sure. It's an endowed chair in his name. Basically, my thoughts behind it have always been that any dean is only holding that position of being a dean for X number of years. Perry's in his second set of a five-year term, second term of five-year terms. I don't know if he's going beyond the ten years or not, but he's done a lot of really great changes in the School of Public Health.
Our concern, when we first started talking about it (there's a Dean's Leadership Council at the School of Public Health that I belong to) was that the School or the Chancellor or the President, someone would hire somebody in that position of Dean of the School of Public Health that may not have the philosophies of Perry and carry out his work, especially in LGBTQ health.
He was very well-known during the Covid crisis. He was outspoken. He was on many network television [programs], local television, radio, etc. So, none of us wanted to see that end. So, our purpose in endowing a chair would be to not only find the person while Perry was still going to be Dean, [but] so that we could make sure that this person sees what Perry's work is and make sure that they're a good fit. So, that's what drove us to do it.
Then, when I sold the practice (when my partners and I sold the practice), it allowed me to have that opportunity to fund that. So, that's why we did it. Like I said, there's a search committee that's formed now. Hopefully, I think their goal is, by the end of this semester, we'll have some people to interview for that position.
SI: Does anything about your time on the Board between our last interview and today stand out in your memory that you'd like to discuss, or is that too recent?
JD: The Board of Governors?
SI: Yes.
JD: No, it's nothing. I mean, I can't say nothing. [laughter] You could go to the minutes and see what happened at the meetings, but nothing has particularly happened to me in that timeframe that stands out.
SI: Yes. I was going to ask about the strike, anything about that you could talk about, if you're allowed to talk about it.
JD: The nurses strike or the...
SI: General strike, and then, maybe the nurses.
JD: Yes, there's probably nothing to talk about. It seems that all of these strikes take longer than what they should take, from both sides. This is just my personal opinion. It seems, sometimes, that people arguing during these situations almost seem to argue for argue[ment]'s sake, or I think that they like not doing what they want to do. Much like Congress these days, it doesn't seem like people want to work together and compromise and come to a conclusion. So, I felt bad for everyone that everything had to go on as long as it did.
That's really about it. There was a lot of protests, protesting nurses and staff, at our Governor's meeting in Newark a couple of months ago. It's always--not uncomfortable--but it's always stressful in those kinds of situations, because you know they're all people and that they all have problems. You also know that there's the other side of the coin and, usually, is financial problems and things of that nature.
So, it's sad that things have to come to that, but, from what I understand, everything is settled and on the way to being settled. Hopefully, everything will stay that way. Unfortunately, it always seems that, as soon as one set of strikes are over, somebody else's contract is ending and there's the next round of negotiating things.
So, hopefully, everyone learned a lesson and can find ways of coming to agreements and not grandstanding and loving the PR attention and all that stuff, on both sides, and just come to an agreement and recognize the other side's issues. I don't know any of the individual negotiations or things like that. That's just an outsider looking a little bit, an outsider looking in.
SI: Is there anything else you think we should add to this session?
JD: I think that, from my email, was the biggest thing; I wanted to let you know that, sort of like the final [footnote]. When I was reading your footnotes, it was interesting seeing the [explanations]. I really enjoyed, actually, the insertions that you had put through there, where you would describe a name or go into the background. It read very smoothly.
SI: Oh, good.
JD: So, that made me feel the need to conclude what happened with the practice and what happened with the Halkitis Endowment.
SI: That's great. Yes, it's good to have that kind of closure for the reader.
JD: Yes, great.
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Reviewed by Shaun Illingworth 2/9/2026
Reviewed by James Dougherty 2/12/2026