Dr. Angela Kathryn (Wright) Baysinger, DVM, passed away peacefully on March 8, at her home with her two sons and beloved husband at her side in rural Bruning, Neb. Baysinger was well known throughout the pork industry for her contributions to veterinary medicine and empowering those around her every day.
"She was more than a mother, friend, mentor, colleague and confidante; she was a force of nature," says Emily Byers Taylor, technical services veterinarian with Merck Animal Health. "Her strength, beauty and fierce determination inspired all who had the privilege of knowing her. Despite facing adversity, she never wavered in her courage or her kindness. She touched countless lives with her warmth and wisdom, leaving an indelible mark on our hearts."
Baysinger was born February 14, 1967, at Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, Ill., to Jerry and Kathryn (Gough) Wright. After living on several Air Force bases across the country where her father was stationed, she grew up on a rural farm near Martinsburg, Mo. It was there that she gained a true love of farm animals, in particular, pigs.
After graduating from Community R-VI High School in Laddonia, Mo., in 1985, she attended the University of Missouri – Columbia where she earned a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 1992. After graduation, she moved to Sutton, Neb., where she practiced at Sutton Veterinary Clinic.
She was united in marriage to Jerry Baysinger on Aug. 8, 1993, in Martinsburg, Mo. She left practice in 1995 to pursue a master’s degree in epidemiology at the University of Nebraska/USDA Meat Animal Research Center - Clay Center, Neb. While there, Baysinger served as the Interim Extension Swine Specialist for a short period of time.
After almost 20 years of various positions with animal health companies as a technical swine veterinarian and with Farmland Foods as Vice President of On-farm Food Safety, Baysinger accepted a position with Merck Animal Health as a technical service veterinarian and then later became North America animal well-being lead.
Baysinger championed many educational conferences to promote animal well-being and help bridge livestock producers with end-users/consumers. This position led her to obtain a master’s degree in animal welfare, ethics and law from the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2021. She was the animal well-being lead with Merck until the time of her death.
She was deeply devoted to service and participated in the American Veterinary Medical Association, American Association of Swine Veterinarians, Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization (PAACO), International Poultry Welfare Alliance, Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, National Pork Board, North American Meat Institute, and numerous other organizations. She was recently installed as president of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians at their conference in Nashville, Tenn., on Feb. 27, an association that she was involved with for many years and truly loved. She also contributed to science with peer-reviewed scientific journal articles and many abstracts over the years.
Baysinger lived life with great enthusiasm, adventure and like “someone left the gate open." Her passions included riding her Harley Davidson motorcycle, riding on poker runs, or just getting much needed wind therapy occasionally. She developed a love for muscle cars and attended car shows with her husband and loved to cruise in her 1970 Panther Pink Super Bee. She also loved to fly planes and always had that desire to have air beneath her wings.
Her greatest love was her family. She was the in-house travel agent that planned family getaways to great places. She was always involved with her boys in their activities with 4-H, FFA, Boy Scouts, sports, band, speech and any activity that they so desired.
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