Longtime Seattle veterinarian Stan Coe received the 2001 Weldon B. Gibson Distinguished Volunteer Award last fall at the Washington State University Foundation Recognition Dinner Gala in Pullman.
The annual award, established in 1981, recognizes sustained exemplary service and achievement on behalf of the WSU Foundation and the University.
“Stan has always been willing to go the extra mile in supporting anything required to promote WSU,” said James C. Kraft, Seattle veterinarian and 1996 recipient of the award. “Stan is an inspirational person, and his leadership in volunteerism is a great example for others.”
Coe was president of the Washington State University Alumni Association in 1984-85 and is a past president of the King County Cougar Club. He has served on the Washington State Board of Veterinary Governors and is a past president of both the Seattle Veterinary Medical Association and the Washington State Veterinary Medical Association. He owns the Elliott Bay Animal Hospital in Seattle.
In 1987, he established the Doney Memorial Pet Clinic in downtown Seattle. The clinic provides free medical treatment for pets of the homeless and indigent. It is staffed by a rotating staff of volunteers and is open two Saturdays a month in the Union Gospel Mission.
Coe earned a B.A. in biological sciences in 1955 and a D.V.M. in 1957, both from WSU. He was named WSU Dad of the Year in 1984 and Veterinarian of the Year in Washington in 1989. His wife, Marge, is a 1957 graduate in home economics. Their two children, Stan “Rusty” Coe and Cindy Zaring, also hold WSU degrees.
The Gibson Award is named for the late Weldon B. Gibson, founding chair of the WSU Foundation, and a founder of the Stanford Research Institute, now SRI International.