University of Missouri-Columbia News Bureau [original story can be found here]

ST. LOUIS - The University of Missouri-Columbia College of Veterinary Medicine received a major boost today as Chancellor Brady Deaton announced a $1 million gift from Thelma Zalk of St. Louis to improve the College's library.

The gift will help relocate and renovate the library, which will be named the Zalk Veterinary Medical Library. The renovated library will include space for educational technology designed to enhance the teaching and research occurring in the College.

"Libraries are the cornerstone of every great academic institution," said Joe Kornegay, dean of the MU College of Veterinary Medicine. "This gift will allow us to create a world-class veterinary medical library that provides our students with the print and electronic resources to reach their full academic potential."

The renovated library will be part of a larger project to revitalize MU's veterinary campus, including the Veterinary Medicine Building. The new library will be on the southwest corner of that building, overlooking a courtyard.

Zalk has a long history with MU, dating back nearly 20 years when she brought her black Labrador, Lucy, to the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital for hip replacement surgery. She was so impressed with the skill, care and attention of the staff that she decided to give something back to the trained professionals who helped her best friend. Since then, she has been generous in her support of the College, endowing a library fund and a scholarship fund for students of veterinary medicine, establishing the Thelma P. Zalk Missouri Professorship of Tumor Angiogenesis, and creating an endowment to benefit the Center for the Study of Animal Wellness and the spay-neuter program being developed in the teaching hospital.

"I love animals; and I love helping people achieve their goals," Zalk said. "I just feel really lucky that I'm able to do these things. It's given me a lot of joy to be able to help deserving places."

More than 2,700 veterinarians have graduated from the MU College of Veterinary Medicine since its founding in 1946. It is the only school of veterinary medicine in the state of Missouri. Mizzou veterinarians practice around the world.

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