Longtime Wallingford veterinarian retiring next month
Longtime Wallingford veterinarian retiring next month Longtime Wallingford veterinarian retiring next month Dr. Robert Hallock checks the heartbeat of Great Dane “Tori” with assistance from Hospital Manager Kathy Grasso at Yalesville Veterinary Hospital in Wallingford, Monday, August 13, 2018. Dr. Hallock is retiring from Yalesville Veterinary Hospital after a nearly 50-year career. Dave Zajac, Record-Journal Advertisement Dr. Robert Hallock smiles in an exam room at Yalesville Veterinary Hospital in Wallingford, Monday, August 13, 2018. Dr. Hallock is retiring from Yalesville Veterinary Hospital after a nearly 50-year career. Dave Zajac, Record-Journal Yalesville Veterinary Hospital in Wallingford, Monday, August 13, 2018. Dave Zajac, Record-Journal Dr. Robert Hallock smiles in the offices of Yalesville Veterinary Hospital in Wallingford, Monday, August 13, 2018. Dr. Hallock is retiring from Yalesville Veterinary Hospital after a nearly 50-year career. Dave Zajac, Record-Journal Advertisement Dr. Robert Hallock talks at Yalesville Veterinary Hospital in Wallingford, Monday, August 13, 2018. Dr. Hallock is retiring from Yalesville Veterinary Hospital after a nearly 50-year career. Dave Zajac, Record-Journal August 13, 2018 05:28PM By Lauren Takores, Record-Journal staff
WALLINGFORD — Associate veterinarian Robert Hallock is retiring from Yalesville Veterinary Hospital at the end of September after nearly 50 years in the practice.
“In veterinary medicine, there’s a very high drop-out rate,” Hallock said Monday. “I think they estimate one veterinarian in 10 that graduates today won’t be doing (private practice) in 10 years.”
Hallock, 74, certainly beat the odds. A Willimantic native and Cheshire resident, his interest in veterinary medicine goes back dozens of years.
“I worked, as a teenager, for my uncle who had a mixed-animal practice,” he said, and “decided that was the way to go.”
He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut in preparation for veterinary school, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1969 with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree.
He then bought a Meriden veterinary practice, Meriden-Wallingford Veterinary Associates, in 1971.
Meriden-Wallingford Veterinary Associates operated on Gypsy Lane until it merged in May 2014 with the Yalesville Veterinary Hospital, which has operated at 322 Church St. (Route 68) since 1991.
The building was expanded in 2012, and will have six doctors after Hallock’s departure.
His decades of practice has brought him the loyalty of generations of clients.
“One of the things that I have found most rewarding is the long-term relationship with a lot of these people,” he said. “I had somebody the other day who told me their daughter was going to be 50, and they started coming to me when she was like a 2-year old.”
Hallock said he appreciated the benefits of working for someone rather than running his own business.
“It’s really pleasurable,” he said. “You deal with the medicine and the surgery without having to deal with the management-type stuff.”
Veterinary medicine, like all medical fields, is constantly changing. The things veterinarians do haven’t changed, he said, but the ways have changed with advances in medicine and adaptations in methods.
Hallock said he stayed up to date on the latest in his field by continuing his education and attending conferences.
Typically, he said he sees about 35 animals during the course of a week.
Even with all his years of experience, he said it’s difficult to deal with the daily life and death situations.
“You deal with clients and their emotions,” he said, “but you can’t really let it affect you as a professional, otherwise it will cloud how you do things.”
Hallock said his post-retirement plans include pursuing his interests in fishing, photography and show dogs. He and his wife have shown boxers in championship events.
Dr. Frank Kostolitz, hospital founder, said Hallock’s experience was his biggest contribution.
“You graduate, you think you know it all,” Kostolitz said. “Over the years, you realize you how little you know. Fifty years does make a huge difference.”
He said it was Hallock’s knowledge of specializations, like boxer breeds, that made him as asset.
“We will sorely miss him,” he said.
Yalesville Veterinary Hospital will host a retirement party for Hallock next month at Lyman Orchards.
”I really like Yalesville,” Hallock said. “They’re a super, top-notch hospital, and the staff and the people here are absolutely great. I’m leaving my clients in good hands.”
LTakores@record-journal.com