Hill, 75, died Dec. 31, 2025<\/p>\n
BAKER CITY \u2014 Come April 4, Dan Forsea\u2019s phone will be a bit quieter with birthday wishes.<\/p>\n
On that day, Forsea never answered his phone just so he had a recording of his friend Tom Hill singing \u201cHappy Birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d leave my phone off so I could listen to the song and laugh,\u201d Forsea said with a chuckle.<\/p>\n
Hill, he said, \u201ccouldn\u2019t carry a tune in a bucket.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a terrible sound \u2014 one year I swear I could hear a dog howling in the back,\u201d he said. \u201cI was looking forward to it this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Tom Hill, a veterinarian in Baker City since 1975, died Dec. 31, 2025. He was 75.<\/p>\n
A celebration of his life is planned for Jan. 23, 11 a.m., at the Baker City Nazarene Church. Homemade desserts are welcome for the reception, and those attending are encouraged to bring cards with stories and memories.<\/p>\n
\u2018Indescribable\u2019<\/p>\n
Known as Dr. Tom, Hill\u2019s professional skills greatly exceeded his singing talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost indescribable what he meant to this community,\u201d said Randy Crutcher, Hill\u2019s friend and longtime vet client. \u201cHe was just such a pillar of the community, especially for the farming and ranching families. He\u2019d come out day or night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hill was born Feb. 3, 1950, in Salem. His family had a shorthorn cattle operation, and he showed bulls at livestock shows \u2014 in fact, according to his family, he was disqualified from the local county fair because he was considered a professional.<\/p>\n
After high school, Hill enrolled at Oregon State University and quickly changed his major from engineering to veterinary medicine. He earned his doctorate at Colorado State University in 1975.<\/p>\n
Baker City was on his route between Salem and Fort Collins, Colorado, so after graduation he stopped at Baker Veterinary Hospital and talked to Dr. Bill Kuhl, who offered him a job.<\/p>\n
Hill joined the practice in September 1975. At first, his family said, Hill didn\u2019t want to work on horses, but soon learned that a rural veterinarian cared for all animals \u2014 cows, dogs, cats, horses and even llamas.<\/p>\n
He married his wife, Lynne, in 1979 and they saved money to buy a home in Wingville by 1988. They raised two kids, Lindy and Joe, and countless pets along with dairy replacement heifers and, later, Hereford and Angus cattle.<\/p>\n
Focus on horses<\/p>\n
For the last 10 years, Hill narrowed his focus to horses only.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the time I can remember, he was here, like my second dad,\u201d said Duncan Mackenzie, who was born in 1999 but said Hill became his family\u2019s vet around 1992. \u201cJust a genuine guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even when an animal couldn\u2019t be saved, Mackenzie said it was better with Hill around.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever a bad day with Tom,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a huge gap for Baker County, and the Pacific Northwest. A lot of people called him for advice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crutcher remembers asking Hill, not long ago, when he was going to retire.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018I am retired. I only do what I want to do,\u2019\u201d Crutcher said. \u201cHe really loved his work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hill was a member of the American Quarter Horse Association, the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association for Equine Practitioners and the American Association of Bovine Practitioners. Over the years, he continued his education whenever possible \u2014 just last month he attended the American Equine Association\u2019s annual meeting in Denver, Colorado.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery horse was his teacher, and each horse was an individual to him,\u201d said Dee Myers, who is a horse trainer and teacher. \u201cYou can\u2019t express what Tom meant to me or people in the valley \u2014 way\u00a0 more than a veterinarian.\u201d<\/p>\n
She spoke of Hill\u2019s compassion when euthanization was necessary for her Paso Fino mare suffering from Cushing\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cLots of respect for the horse, and respect for the human,\u201d she said. \u201cTom was a horseman, beginning to end. He handled the good times, and really handled the hard times.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also asked him about retirement, and he told her, \u201cI\u2019m not going to retire. This is where I\u2019ll be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe lived and breathed his job,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u2018A huge champion\u2019<\/p>\n
Savannah Kerns and her husband, Mark, grew up in Baker Valley and both have known Hill for years. As adults, she said Hill greatly supported their quarterhorse program.<\/p>\n
\u201cTom has been a huge champion,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was so proud of us, and our biggest cheerleader. He was a big person in our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
In emergencies, she said Hill stayed calm.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe never freaked out, never lost his cool,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
His influence, she said, was felt across the county.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis community has a lot of really nice horses and that\u2019s because of Tom.\u201d<\/p>\n
His family said he offered help beyond veterinary medicine, such as advice on nutrition, minerals, herd health programs and calf survivability.<\/p>\n
The lighter side<\/p>\n
Forsea lives in Richland, and met Hill around 1976.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe became friends pretty fast,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve camped and hunted together since the mid 1980s.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was one of the fortunate ones to see the fun side of him, the kid side,\u201d Forsea said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if one of us brought it out of the other or what.\u201d<\/p>\n
One time, they were looking for cattle in the Snake River country and coming home in a thick fog. Although Hill suspected they were going the wrong way, Forsea didn\u2019t agree \u2014 he\u2019d grown up riding those hills, after all.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter two draws over, he was right \u2014 I was going in the wrong direction,\u201d Forsea said, laughing at the memory.<\/p>\n
And then a dried, spear-like mullein plant came flying past him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to stop and have a mullein fight,\u201d he said. \u201cThe inner kid came out.\u201d<\/p>\n
They were both in their 40s, or maybe 50s, he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018A really great guy\u2019<\/p>\n
Crutcher trusted Hill, and even brought his horses to Baker during the 10 years he lived in Hermiston while working for the Oregon State Police.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t find people like Tom every day,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was really, really good at what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hill was good with people, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a really great guy,\u201d Crutcher said. \u201cI\u2019m fortunate to have known him \u2014 you\u2019re a better person for having known him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rob and Lori Thomas sought Hill\u2019s vet advice for 40 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had so many stories, and had seen so many things,\u201d Rob Thomas said. \u201cEvery bit of consulting has been mostly through Tom. He\u2019s just one of a kind.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hill, 75, died Dec. 31, 2025 BAKER CITY \u2014 Come April 4, Dan Forsea\u2019s phone will be a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[18,440,19,17,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-285501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-science"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115898462112192927","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}