Page 21 - New Mexico Summer 2022

Doc and Joanne are pictured with their family.
““He has never not been there whenever I
needed him.” - Serena
It’s a gift
that Doc tapped to
help his oldest daughter make it
through the emotional trauma of having to leave her friends and comfort zone when the family moved to Roswell from Santa Fe.
Serena was 16 and starting her junior year at Santa Fe High.
“I was leaving my friends behind. It was the worst tragedy of my life at the time,” says the now 63-year-old mother of three.
Luckily for Serena, there was a “Papa Doc” in the house.
“I remember we sat on a tractor. I was crying and he started crying,” recalls Serena. “And he told me, ‘How about this? You go one year to high school here in Roswell and if you want to go back to Santa Fe to graduate, you can.’ I thought that was a great compromise. Little did I know, I was going to adjust perfectly well to Roswell.”
“We sat on a tractor and had a conversation and he made me feel better about it with parental wisdom that a 16-year-old doesn’t know about,” says Serena.
As every parent knows, the commitment to their kids is lifelong.
“Even as an adult, every year that each one of my kids left for college, on the very first day, he
Kevin Blach, like his dad, graduated from vet school at CSU. He says it wasn’t a given that he would be a veterinarian and had toyed with the idea of training horses.
“My mom and dad never pressured me to be a veterinarian, but they did tell me I needed to go to college. They said, ‘You can train horses after college.’ After I’d been in college two or three years, the training horses idea kind of got cold.”
Kevin worked with his dad for about 10 years, then opened his own clinic. The hands
on knowledge and experience he acquired in
the various disciplines of veterinary work were invaluable. From reproduction (breeding)
to arthroscopy procedures to the day-to-day operations of a clinic, who better a mentor than his dad. Besides, Kevin had already learned a lot just being around his dad while growing up.
“I learned more about horse reproduction from him ... than I ever did in veterinary school,” said Kevin.
“When I got out of vet school I had several job offers, but I decided to come and practice with my dad,” says Kevin. “The main reason was with him I could just go. I didn’t feel like I was really green and had to be supervised that much. My dad had a lot of faith in me.”
Asked what his dad’s biggest influence on his
says Kevin.
Since 1995, Kevin and one of his CSU
classmates, Bruce Gammill, have been co-owners of the South Springs Animal Hospital in Roswell.
Kevin, Serena and Pamela each have three children. Kevin’s children are Chloe, 32, son Ranin, 29 and daughter Abbie, 28. Serena and her husband Jeff Villnow live in Seattle. Their three kids are Kayla, 39, Jaden, 37, and Cassie, 32. Serena graduated from CSU with a degree in animal husbandry. She also owned a company that conducted mock trials for actual cases that were going to be litigated. Her husband is an environmental consultant. They have seven grandkids.
Pamela, 58, lives in San Diego. Her children are Kristin, 27, Kelli, 25 and Ryan, 16. Pamela and her late husband, Dr. Bob Stonebreaker, owned a veterinary clinic. Dr. Stonebreaker passed away 12 years ago.
“All of us kids learned hard work,” said Pamela. “We have strong work ethics. The sky’s the limit and you can do whatever you put your mind to. They never pushed us in any direction, they just gave us a very big base from religion, from faith, manners, and respect.”
Lessons that last a lifetime. So much a part of the legacies of the farm boy from Yuma and the city girl from Greeley.
“He’s a huge role model to have as much strength and the way he pushes forward through a crisis.” – Pamela
would call me because he knew I was really sad and life has been, Kevin unhesitatingly says it’s Doc’s he would try to inject humor,” said Serena. “He has work ethic.
never not been there whenever I needed him.” “Never started a job he wouldn’t finish,”
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Pamela is pictured with her three children.
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