Honoring longtime vet

The News Letter Journal staff was saddened to learn of longtime veterinarian Dr. Pete Vorpahl’s passing this past week. Vorpahl was chosen as NLJ’s 2002 Person of the Year from a list of 12 people who made a difference in the community. The vet was chosen for his animal healing and selfless service to all things great and small. In the Jan. 3, 2003, NLJ article, Vorpahl said he felt he was doing the “Lord’s work.”
Vorpahl was attending college on a wildlife management path, and the buddies he hung around were all enrolled in pre-veterinary medicine, so he switched his major to pre-vet. Ironically, Vorpahl ended up being the only one amongst his group of friends to be accepted into a veterinary program. After completing his degree at Colorado State University and working for a year in Montrose, he and his wife Fonda came to Newcastle in May 1971 where Vorpahl would spend the rest of his career, in the place he called “home.”
The duo were devoted to his veterinary profession, and they were huge supporters of the Weston County Humane Society. Vorpahl was known to always go the extra mile to save an animal, and he dreaded the task of having to put one to sleep.
“I would never want to work in a large community. You can do a lot of good work in a little place. Our goal was to become an integral part of the community and provide veterinary care to all the critters,” Vorpahl told the NLJ in 2002.
Vorpahl’s veterinary reputation exceeded the boundaries of our little town as people traveled near and far for his services. 
We are fortunate that Vorpahl selected our little town to do the “Lord’s work,” and his legacy of healing, caring, and selfless service to all creatures great and small will live on in our hearts and memories.