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[RC] loss of a friend - suendavidI'm very sorry to say that the sport of endurance lost a very good friend yesterday with the death of Steve Wickler, Ph.D, DVM. Wick passed away at his home after a year-long fight with a glioblastoma tumor affecting the frontal cortex of his brain.
Wick vetted only a few AERC rides, and never rode one himself. Nevertheless, he was a powerful resource for the sport, as he carried out and published an astounding list of research studies involving different aspects of equine exercise physiology. Many of these have filtered down as useful, take-home information to grassroots riders who put the info to good use but almost never knew of the info's origins. If anyone ever mentioned "research at Cal Poly Pomona", it invariably had Wick's fingerprints on it somewhere. His work was published in virtually every relevant, respected, peer-reviewed journal and it's almost impossible to pick up a text on the subject without seeing his name referred to in the bibliography. To say that Wick was merely brilliant is an understatement.
More importantly, he was a talented, dedicated and enthusiastic instructor who reveled in the success of his students---many, MANY of whom have since earned their own doctoral degrees in veterinary and biologic science and are out putting what he taught to good use, myself included. He knew when to say 'well done' and when to put a boot up your ass when you most needed it. He was decent, fun, dedicated to his students and had a diabolical sense of humor. Many of my happiest memories over the past seventeen years involved Wick in some way---cooking cioppino at 10,000 feet in the Sierra Nevadas during field research projects, flying overseas to research meetings and playing I Dare You To Eat That with the local cuisine, the many parties and barbecues celebrating virtually any milestone, including "Tuesday". Looking out my front window, I just now realize that even the landscaping at my home was unconsciously influenced by Wick---a bank of native
xeriscape habitat harboring wildlife hopping and zooming everywhere instead of sterile, water-hungry, non-habitat lawn.
I am incredibly lucky that my education was guided in part by someone like Wick, lucky that I had an opportunity to say thank you and goodbye, and lucky that I could call Wick not only a mentor but also a friend. I will miss him very much.
His wife, Dr. Nicole Zimmerman Wickler, very gracefully emailed his friends and colleagues to say that yesterday morning "Steven has chosen this time to pass onto his next journey peacefully". I'm not smart enough to know what the next world might bring, but I can well imagine my friend starting that journey with the same curiousity and sense of adventure as he did this one.
Susan Garlinghouse, DVM, MS, BS
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