Darrell L. Cochran

Dr. Darrell L. Cochran: Darrell passed away early Sunday morning at the Oskaloosa Care Center at the age of 80 years, 3 months and 10 days. Memorial Contributions may be made to the Stephen Memorial Animal Shelter. I attended the University of Iowa in 1948 ? 1949 to study journalism. In 1949 ? 1950, I transferred to Iowa State, in 1946 ? 1950, to study veterinary medicine. I applied for Vet School in 1951 but was not accepted until 1952. I graduated in 1956 with a Doctor of Veterinary Degree (DVM). In 1950 I could earn enough money by working on construction crews (wages were 90 cents/hour) to pay for 2 quarters of college at Iowa State. I applied for a job as waiter in the girl's dorm and was accepted for duty in Elm Hall. The first week I saw a nice looking girl named Maxine Onsager from Northwood, North Dakota and we began to date. I knew a waiter shouldn't date girls in the dorm where they worked but when the housemother found out about it, she fired me! However, the next day she hired me again and sent me to Oak Hall as a head waiter with a pay of $10.00/month. We were married June 30, 1954. I graduated in 1956 and Maxine got her PHT(Putting Hubby Through) and went to work for Dr. Cook in Montezuma, Iowa. We had a bevy of natural drugs, a new one called penicillin and a sulfa called sulfonamide. We also had bacterins and vaccines which at the time were the rival of the day. I was born August 11, 1930 in Guernsey, Iowa to Fred and Gladys Murphy Cochran. It was a difficult birth. It started with a midwife. After six hours the doctor was called and three hours later I was born. It was easy to see why I was an only child. Dad and his brother ran the Guernsey Savings bank. In 1932 the bank went broke. Dad was going home ? no job and no prospects ? when a car pulled up beside him. It was the county sheriff. He asked my dad if he knew anything about law enforcement. Dad said no, but he could learn and was appointed deputy sheriff on the spot. A few years later he was elected to county sheriff and I began my 14-15 years staying in the county jail. I had a captive group to teach me Cribbage, Hearts, Checkers and things not so savory. Our closets were filled with machine guns, gas guns and sawed off shotguns. Childhood was normal at least normal for someone who lived in a jail setting. I graduated from Montezuma Community School in 1948. Classes of 1947, 1948 and 1949 set several firsts in football and went to district and sub-state in basketball. In football we had no points scored against us in conference play for two years. We will probably hold the record for greatest points scored in a game 0 ? 62! Soon after they stopped play if the score became lopsided. At the time I was working with Dr. Cook, I also had a sideline of raising Weimaraner dogs. I heard Dr. Lyons of Oskaloosa had a silver male he would use for breeding. I came down to see the dog. Dr. Lyons and I had similar ideas about practice and went back to Montezuma with a job offer. We moved to Oskaloosa in May of 1957. In the spring of 1958 Dr. Lyons developed skin cancer on his hands and the doctor advised him to go to a milder climate and leave large animal practice. In April 1958 Dr. Lyons said he was leaving and I bought the practice from him. I contacted Dr. Ron Goldsmith and we became partners in 1958. Before long we were working 16 hour days with Sunday off every two weeks. He let it be known that we needed another vet in our practice so Dr. Martin Roepke joined us and later became a partner. We followed in a few years by hiring Dr. Tom Donohue and finally just before I retired in 1992 we were joined by Dr. Teresa Carmichael. During the late 1960's I became interested in flying. I bought a two place Piper Cub and received my private pilot license in it. I later acquired a Cessna 172 and Maxine received her license in it. PDF Printable Version

Darrell L. Cochran

August 11, 1930 - November 21, 2010