Charles W. Raker, VMD, Dipl. ACVS, one of the founders of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine's (Penn Vet) New Bolton Center, died peacefully on Feb. 16. He was 93.

He was born on July 7, 1920, and grew up in Daylesford, Pa. He graduated from Penn Vet in 1942 and spent eight years in private practice following graduation. In 1950, he took a position of assistant professor of veterinary medicine at Penn Vet to boost its livestock and large-animal curriculum.

Raker was appointed chairman of the then department of surgery in 1956. In 1967, three years after the construction of the school’s first large-animal hospital on the New Bolton Center campus, he was the recipient of the Lawrence Baker Sheppard Endowed Chair in veterinary surgery—the first in the nation and funded by Hanover Shoe Farms, the famous Standardbred breeding and training facility in central Pennsylvania.

Raker was a charter diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons, an organization he helped found in 1965. Over the years he served as its examination committee chair, chair of the board of regents, vice president, and president