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| Lawayne T. Nusz, DVM August 18, 1939 - November 7, 2007 Former Secretary-Treasurer Dr. Nusz was born August 18, 1939, on the family farm outside Hitchcock, Okla., to Henry and Iva (Hoffman) Nusz. He grew up on a farm and began his formal education at Arapahoe Country School, graduating from Okeene High School, Okeene, Okla., in 1957. He earned a bachelor's degree in animal husbandry from Oklahoma State University in 1961. He served as a first class hospital corpsman in the U.S. Navy for two years before returning to Oklahoma State University to obtain his doctor of veterinary medicine in 1970.
His veterinary career began in New Jersey in 1970. His interest in livestock led him to northeast Iowa to start his own practice, the Town and Country Veterinary Clinic, which he owned and operated for 14 years. Following his career in private practice, he began a career in public service with the state of Virginia as a regional veterinary supervisor in Harrisonburg. He ended his working career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Animal Disease Center in Ames. After 15 years of federal service as a supervising veterinarian in animal resources, he retired in 2006 at which time he also retired as the secretary-treasurer of the Association for Gnotobiotics. Illness prevented Dr. Nusz from traveling to the AG-SOMED meeting at Washington University in St. Louis in June, 2006 to receive the thanks of a grateful organization. Acknowledgement of Dr. Nusz�s service and an engraved gift in his name were made in absentia.
The gnotobiotic facilities of the USDA introduced Dr. Nusz to the field of germ-free research and gnotobiology and he became an enthusiastic and active member of the AG. In 1997, upon the recommendation of AG president Roger Orcutt, the Board appointed Dr. Nusz to the position of secretary-treasurer of the Association, a position in which he served until his retirement.
He is survived by his wife of 44 years, Susan Ann (Wagner) Nusz, of Ames and his children, Lara (Matthew) Hicok, of Ames, Eileen (Eric) Canafax, of Skokie, Illinois, and David (Marievic) Nusz, of Gettysburg, South Dakota. He also is survived by four grandchildren as well as his mother, Iva Nusz, of Watonga, Oklahoma; and one brother, Lonnie (Donna) Nusz, of Mansfield, Texas. He was preceded in death by an infant son, Stephen Henry; an infant granddaughter, Mariel; his father, Henry; and one sister, Marietta (Kenneth) Brown. Donations can be made to the American Cancer Society for Renal Cell Cancer Research, www.cancer.org.
(Information contained herein was provided by the Nusz family and the Association for Gnotobiotics and adapted from the Ames (Iowa) Tribune, Nov. 8-9, 2007.) |
Dr. Lawayne Thomas Nusz, a decades-long member of the Association for Gnotobiotics (AG) and for more than ten years the Secretary-Treasurer of the AG, died Wednesday, November 7, 2007 in Ames, Iowa after a heroic five-year battle with renal cell cancer. A memorial service was held at the Mennonite Brethren Church in Okeene, Oklahoma with burial in Peaceful Cemetery in Hitchcock, Oklahoma.