Harry Gorman; Helped Developed Artificial Hip Join

Harry Gorman, 72, a veterinarian who helped develop the artificial hip joint for animals and humans and also trained animals the United States sent into space. Gorman, a past president of the American Veterinary Medical Assn., designed the first artificial hip joint for dogs and later adapted it for human use. He also helped develop ethics classes in veterinary medicine at Colorado State University. Gorman spent 22 years in the military, starting with the Army and in 1946 heading the newly created Air Force’s Veterinary Corps. He retired in 1960 as a colonel. During World War II, he led a team of veterinarians who rescued more than a million cattle from drowning in the Netherlands when dikes destroyed by bombs let farmland flood. He received the Bronze Star, Legion of Merit and nine other military decorations. In 1956, he joined the School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio as chief of the veterinary division. There he raised and trained the United States’ first animals in space. In Ft. Collins, Colo., on Friday of undisclosed causes.