Raymond Bankowski
Hall of Honor

Born in Chicago in 1914, Dr. Raymond Bankowski attended Michigan State University and received his DVM in 1938. World War II interrupted his postgraduate studies in the Veterinary Science Division of UC Berkely, and he served in the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps before completing his PhD in comparative pathology in 1946.

In 1950, Dr. Bankowski joined UC Davis as a founding faculty member of the School of Veterinary Medicine and served as Chairman of the Department of Avian Medicine from 1954 to 1959.

Although he retired in 1978, he maintained an active laboratory research program as an emeritus faculty member and contributed to the establishment of the veterinary school’s clinical residency training program in avian medicine.

Dr. Bankowski served on many advisory committees throughout his career, including technical advisory committees to the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the control and eradication of foreign poultry disease outbreaks in the United States. He chaired the Committee on Transmissible Diseases of Poultry and Other Avian Species of the U.S. Animal Health Association from 1973 to 1987 and served as general chairman of the First International Symposium on Avian Influenza in 1981.

He was a founder and charter member of several associations, including the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, American Academy of Microbiology, and the American Association of Avian Pathologists, of which he was elected a life member in 1983.

His previous awards include the Fulbright Award (1957), the Mark Morris Animal Foundation Research Director Award (1961), the AVMA Research Award (1971), the American Feed Manufacturers Association Award (1971), the Michigan State University Veterinary Alumni Award (1974), the Karl F. Meyer Gold Headed Cane Award and Honorary Diploma from the American Veterinary Epidemiology Society (1985), the E. P. Pope Memorial Award from the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (1985), and the Western Poultry Disease Conference Achievement Award (1992).

Dr. Bankowski passed away in 1993.