Friday, August 13, 2010

At clinic, it’s ‘All in the Family’

Next generation of Ackers to take the torch as veterinarians

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By PAT MURPHY
Express Staff Writer

From left to right, Randy Acker, Amber Acker, Sue Acker, Maggie Acker and Scott Acker take a break from their veterinary work this week.

A generation of the Acker brothers—Randy, Scott and Mark—en masse decided to become veterinarians and open two Wood River Valley animal clinics.

So, logically, Dr. Randy Acker should assume his son, Marcus, would follow in his footsteps to carry on the family business.

Nope.

While Marcus, 25, is wrapping up his college education at Montana State University to become a civil engineer, his two sisters—Amber, 30, and Maggie, 28—have become veterinarians and joined the family business along with their father and their uncles, Drs. Scott and Mark Acker.

Not to be left out, their mother, Sue Acker, is also a full-time employee of the Sun Valley Animal Center—south of Ketchum—in the management end of the business.

Although the three veterinary doctors—father and two daughters—were sharing duties this week in the animal center's surgery suite, it was only temporary.

Dr. Amber Acker will return soon to England to join her husband, U.S. Air Force Capt. Reid Sanborn, an F-15 pilot on combat duty in Afghanistan. When Sanborn completes his combat deployment, he'll return with his unit to a British base, where Amber will practice veterinary medicine. Thereafter, Sanborn will serve out his remaining Air Force obligation at a U.S. stateside base, and then move to the Wood River Valley permanently with Amber.

Dr. Maggie Acker's husband, John Collins, is completing business studies at Oregon State University, then will settle in the valley.

"It's good to pass the torch," Dr. Randy Acker said of the daughters joining the practice.

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