One Family,
One
Medicine

With 18 Auburn degrees, the Cartner-Murchison family ranks high among Auburn-laden family trees for loyalty. However, when eight of those 18 are veterinarians and four are medical doctors, the impact of One Medicine is undeniable.

The roots of this family tree are securely anchored by Sam Cartner ’83, DVM, and his wife, Agnes Murchison Cartner ’82, DVM, MD, prime examples of the versatility of an Auburn veterinary degree with their career successes in research and human medicine, respectively. On the newest branch of the family tree, their niece, Lockett Nelson, graduated with her 2020 Vet Med classmates this spring and plans a more traditional path into small or mixed animal practice. Together, this family represents what is possible with an Auburn degree and, specifically, with an Auburn DVM.

To see the beginning of the Cartner-Murchison Auburn connections, look to Agnes’ great uncle, George Matthews Marks, who came to Auburn in the late 1890s and learned from founding veterinary dean Charles Allen Cary. Before the era of the Auburn DVM, Marks earned API certification in veterinary science, chemistry and geology/minerology. His Auburn credentials are signed by legends Cary, Broun, Mell and Ross.

The common thread of incredible teaching throughout the Auburn Vet Med history is reflected by the vet school experiences of the Cartners and Nelson. To Agnes’ comment, “We had great professors and we were all a team,” Sam added, “The most important resource, still, is the faculty. Technology didn’t make the difference in our veterinary education. Instructors did. It was all about everybody getting through together. The instructors promoted that atmosphere.”

“As a student at Auburn,” Nelson said, “I have been taught by incredible professors, many of whom are Auburn Vet Med graduates themselves. The veterinarians at Auburn are amazing role models and encourage us to continue learning throughout our career. Many of the veterinarians that I admired while growing up, both relatives and friends, were Auburn graduates as well, and are quite successful.”

Sam and Agnes Cartner’s career journeys exhibit that lifelong learning. Post-graduation and after they married, the couple moved to Virginia, where Sam pursued dairy practice until an injury required a less physically demanding job. They moved to south Alabama, where Agnes worked nights at the Mobile Animal Emergency Clinic and Sam worked days at the Mobile County Health Department as environmental health services director.

They solved their opposing schedules in 1985, when Agnes began running the Gulf Coast Veterinary Hospital, which they opened together in Orange Beach, Alabama. Sam kept his other job, and helped with emergencies and on weekends. While Sam pursued his public health master’s, they continued to build their practice until 1989, when they moved to Birmingham for Agnes to begin medical school and Sam to pursue his Ph.D. in cellular and molecular pathology, both at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

This change of career direction was precipitated by a family tragedy, the death of Agnes’ sister, Hettie Hopkins “Tutta” Murchison ’85, in an auto accident in 1988 during Tutta’s fourth year at the University of South Alabama medical school. Tutta was posthumously awarded her MD in 1988. Agnes had not envisioned an MD in her own future. But, with her sister’s death, she assumed the family mantle, set originally by their father, Grover Cleveland Murchison, who graduated first in his University of Alabama medical school class the generation before.

“When my sister died, I thought ‘somebody has got to be an MD,’” said Agnes. “My dad had been an MD. I was a veterinarian and my husband was a veterinarian. My other sister and brother-in-law, Cary Murchison Phillips and Rusty Phillips, were veterinarians. Sam was supportive, so we sold our veterinary practice and went
back to school.”

The other veterinarians among the family’s Auburn graduates include Sam’s brother, Jim Cartner ’79, and Murchison cousin Harry Blaylock ’77.

Agnes graduated with her MD in 1995, earning her specialty in radiology in 1999. She retired in January from Vulcan Imaging Associates in Birmingham after a career in women’s health imaging —mostly breast/breast cancer imaging.

Known for her skills and compassion as a patient advocate, Agnes associates her success with her Auburn veterinary studies. “I sign my name, ‘Agnes Cartner, DVM, MD.’ Someone asked me once, ‘Don’t you want to put your most important degree first?’ And I said, ‘Yes. I did.’”

Meanwhile, Sam performed graduate work in UAB’s Department of Comparative Medicine—established by Auburn Vet Med Professor Emeritus Henry Baker, whom Sam called “the leader in the lab animal and research world,” and Russell Lindsey, who studied under Auburn’s Wilford Bailey. Receiving his Ph.D. in 1995, Sam rose through UAB ranks leading to roles as genetics professor, associate vice president of animal research services, animal resources director and director of the Southeastern Biosafety Laboratory.