OBITUARIES
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:
Mark Loren Morris, DVM, 92,
credited with coining the term “companion
animal,” died July 8 in Naples, Florida, of
atherosclerosis. Born in Hendersonville,
Colorado, Morris earned his veterinary
diploma from Cornell University in 1925
and took over an established practice in
Edison, New Jersey, where he set up the
Raritan Animal Hospital, one of the first
facilities of its kind, and pioneered the prac-
tice of small-animal medicine as a specialty.
Formerly, most veterinarians traveled from
farm to farm, mainly treating livestock.
Morris served as first president of the
American Animal Hospital Association,
which he helped to found in 1933, but his
greatest accomplishments were still ahead.
Discovering that diet-related kid-
ney failure was a leading cause of canine
death, Morris developed and began produc-
tion of a dry dog food mix, called Raritan
Ration B®, to which clients were to add
specified amounts of cottage cheese, cooked
eggs, and lean meat. Among Morris’ cus-
tomers was Morris Frank, a blind man who
had become the first American to receive a
guide dog, and who toured the U.S. as
ambassador for Seeing Eye, Inc., of nearby
Morristown, New Jersey. Because Frank
couldn’t see to mix Raritan Ration B® for
his dog, named Buddy, Morris developed a
pre-mixed canned version, dubbed k-d®,
for kidney diet. He also produced a high-
protein version for pregnant dogs and pup-
pies, called p-d®. Both formulas caught on
quickly. Morris sold the manufacturing
rights to the Hill Packing Company of
Topeka, Kansas, in October 1948, which
continues to market the products as Hill’s Pet
Products, a subsidiary of Colgate-
Palmolive. Morris subsequently developed
and sold to Hill three more pet food formu-
las: c/d®, or cat diet; i/d®, a bland diet
for either cats or dogs; and r/d®, a reducing
diet for either cats or dogs.
Morris used the proceeds of the
initial sale to set up the Buddy Foundation,
to finance research into animal health. “For
years,” he told reporters, “pet animals have
been used for medical research into human
ills, and it is time that something was done
for the animals themselves.” The Buddy
Foundation was renamed the Mark L. Morris
Memorial Animal Foundation in 1956, after
moving to Englewood, Colorado. Morris
explained that the word “memorial” was
added while he was still alive in hopes of
encouraging contributions in memory of
pets, but instead it became a source of
embarrassment. The name was formally
shortened to the present title, the Morris
Animal Foundation, in 1975. Morris’
daughter Ruth, a public relations specialist,
and his son Mark L. Jr., a fellow veterinari-
an, were both elected to the board in 1957.
As the organization grew, both eventually
became fulltime staffers. Morris himself
meanwhile became president of the
American Veterinary Medical Association,
1961-1962.
With current assets of approxi-
mately $13 million, the Morris Animal
Foundation has funded more than $10 mil-
lion in studies to benefit the health of cats,
dogs, horses, and wildlife, and is currently
funding projects at the rate of $750,000 a
year. Although funding from the sale of
Morris’ formulas to Hill ended in 1968, the
foundation has continued to grow through
the support of celebrities and corporate
donors. It was briefly targeted for protest in
1988 by the New England Anti-Vivisection
Society, for funding animal-based research,
but refuted the charges of the activists by
pointing out that it has formally opposed
cruel experimentation since 1959; funds the
development of non-animal-based research
methods; and encourages researchers to
work primarily with animals who already
require treatment for disease or injury.
Naturalist Nellie Imogene
Donovan Teale, 92, died of colon cancer
on July 18 in Hampton, Connecticut.
Married to Pulitzer Prize-winning nature
writer Edwin Way Teale in 1923, Mrs.
Teale collaborated with her husband on
numerous books, from Grassroots Junglein
1937, a classic work on insect gardening,
to A Walk Through The Year, their last, in
1978. They deeded their home, Trail
Wood, to the Connecticut Audubon Society
in 1979, a year before Mr. Teale’s death.
The 140-acre site is maintained as a memor-
ial sanctuary by CAS and a support group,
Friends of Trail Wood.
