Dr. Harold “Hank” W. Hannah, Esq.

Dr. Harold “Hank” W. Hannah, D.V.M., J.D. was a Distinguished Life Member and the first President of the American Veterinary Medical Law Association (AVMLA), he passed away on November 20, 2001.

Dr. Hannah was born January 16, 1911 in Monticello, Illinois. He was the son of a central Illinois tenant farmer. A graduate of the University of Illinois Colleges of Agriculture and Law, he held several positions at the University of Illinois, including Assistant to the Dean, Associate Dean and Professor of Agriculture and Veterinary Law.

World War II interrupted Dr. Hannah’s service at the University of Illinois. During the war, he was a paratrooper, rising to the rank of Lt. Colonel in Normandy in 1944. He was wounded in Holland in 1944 during operation Market Garden. In 1945 Dr. Hannah retired from the Army due to disability and subsequently returned to the University of Illinois where he spearheaded the University’s Veterans’ program.

Dr. Hannah’s accomplishments abroad and in the U.S. were many; chief among them was his role in helping establish an agriculture university in India between 1955 and 1957. He followed that with two on-site researched books about universities in developing countries. He also served on a commission on post secondary and higher education in Nigeria. Dr. Hannah also directed a project in Michigan for a legislative committee on the reorganization of the state government.

His publications include several books on agricultural and veterinary law, as well as university bulletins and numerous articles in professional journals. His last law review article was Animals as Property–Changing Concepts in Vol. 25 Southern Illinois University Law Journal 571 (Spring 2001). Among his books were Academic Interlude, Military Interlude and Mules in the Law. After Dr. Hannah’s retirement from the University of Illinois he taught agricultural and veterinary law for many years at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale. Today, SIU has a scholarship in his honor for students pursuing Agricultural Law.

Dr. Hannah loved the law, particularly veterinary law. For more than thirty years he authored the Legal Briefs column for the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA).

He came to the founding meeting of the AVMLA in Minneapolis in July 1993 and was elected the Association’s first president in 1994. Dr. Hannah was very helpful in the formation and guidance of the AVMLA. For his service and guidance the Board of Directors awarded him a Distinguished Life Membership in July of 2001.

Commencing with the July 2002 AVMLA program in Nashville, Tennessee, a Harold “Hank” W. Hannah Memorial Lecture was established in the AVMLA Annual Meeting and Continuing Education Program in recognition and appreciation of Dr. Hannah’s remarkable life, achievements and his service to the AVMLA.