Arthur Alton Bickford
AAAP Hall of Honor

Art was born and raised in northern Vermont (Coventry and Newport) and attended the University of Vermont (1954-1956) and the University of Pennsylvania where he received his VMD in 1960.  He pursued graduate study in veterinary pathology at the University of Vermont, Colorado State University and Purdue University where he received M.S and PhD. Degrees in 1964 and 1966 respectively.  He earned diplomate status in the American College of Veterinary Pathologists in 1965 and is a Founding Diplomate of the American College of poultry Veterinarians.
 
Art served in faculty positions at Purdue University first as Instructor and Assistant Professor in the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (1962-1966) and as Associate Professor of Veterinary Pathology (1968-1973).  He was professor and Chairman of Veterinary Pathology at the University of Missouri, Columbia (1979-1984).  At the University of California, Davis he served as Extension Veterinarian (1974-1979) and Director of Veterinary Extension (1978-79) and returned in 1984 as Professor of Clinical Diagnostic Avian Pathology in the California Animal Health and Food Safety (CAHFS) Laboratory System.  Prior to retirement in 2001 he served as Chief of the Turlock Laboratory (1984-97), Interim Chief of the Fresno Laboratory (1987-89) and Associate Director of the Laboratory System (1992-2001). Throughout his career he has focused his research efforts on characterization of new and unusual avian diseases (transient paralysis, adenoviral infections, clostridial infections etc.) especially diagnostic and pathogenetic considerations.
 
He served on the Editorial Boards of AVIAN DISEASES, POULTRY SCIENCE and AMERICAN JOURNAL OF VETERINARY RESEARCH and was active in several professional organizations including the American Veterinary Medical Association (Delegate from AAAP, Scientific Program Committee), the Western Poultry Disease Conference (President 1979), the American Association of Avian Pathologists (President 1983) and the Western Veterinary Conference (President 2000) and the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (Secretary/Treasurer 1997-2001).  Art received the CA Bottorff Award from the AAAP in 1995 and the E.P.Pope Award from the AAVLD in 2001.
 
Art and his wife Peggy have been married for 56 years and have three daughters (Carolyn, Patricia and Andrea), four grandchildren and two great grandchildren.   He is still a participant in the Turlock CAHFS Laboratory and enjoys reading and a bit of traveling.