It is doubtful that most five-year-olds really know what path they will be following later in life, but Dr. Rusty Bean declares he definitely knew at that age what he would be doing as an adult.
Bean, 65, grew up on Wesleyan Drive in Macon. At that time, he said last week, “The only thing that was out there was my family. I lived next door to my grandparents. My brother and sisters were on one side of us, and I mean, literally, there was nothing out there but family and a few friends.”
Bean’s grandfather owned a small farm, which included raising cattle. The youngster was there often, helping with various chores. When he was five, a veterinarian came to the farm to check on some cows. Bean asked him what he did, and the vet replied that he worked on animals for a living.
“And,” Bean recalled, “I told my grandfather right then and there, ‘I think that’s what I need to do.’ Because... we had animal husbandry, taking care of everything that we raised, and then, of course, the next step. But, yeah, it kind of set the pace. I mean, at five years old, I was just as serious as I could be.”
Bean followed through on his pronouncement. His educational journey took him to Valdosta State, then to the University of Georgia, where he graduated in 1984 with a major in animal science. He applied for vet school but did not get in and was placed on an alternate list.
Meanwhile, Bean married his high school sweetheart, Amy Maddox, in 1983, but before that, in 1980, he joined the National Guard.
“I was studying for a test,” he recalled, “and one of my friends from high school came in to the library and said, ‘Guess what? We’re going tomorrow to join the National Guard. They’ll pay for us on the GI Bill to go to college.’
“I said, ‘That’s not such a bad deal there, if you could join up and get paid an amount every month and then get the GI Bill.’ So that’s about how much forethought I had into it, studying for a test, and the next day we went and signed up, and that was in May of 1980.”
Bean stayed in the military 20 years, including active duty for about 10 years.
“I kind of went all over the place,” he commented. “In fact, I got home from Desert Storm and two weeks later reported to vet school.” He added that he actually started vet school in 1991 and graduated May 13, 1995, exactly 15 years to the day he enlisted in the Army in 1980.
The new vet first worked in Rome then Macon before starting his own practice in Jones County.
“I actually talked to Dr. Berry Moore out here and said, ‘I’m thinking about starting a mobile practice. Do you have a problem with that?’ I mean, I asked permission, and he, being a gracious gentleman, said, ‘No, I don’t have a problem with it.’
“So, I opened Piedmont Animal Service and ran it out of my father-inlaw’s farm and did house calls throughout Middle Georgia.”
Bean noted that he brought into the business one of his classmates, Dr. Lenus Hall, who later became a partner.
“We discussed a lot of options, and we decided to buy the piece of property next to Exchange Bank, where our office is currently located. We felt like we went into debt for a million dollars and opened up that hospital in 1998, and we’ve been there ever since.”
Bean later sold the mobile practice to Dr. Jennifer Proctor. “She still works through Piedmont Animal Hospital Service concurrently and has been ever since ’97 or ‘98.”
The animal hospital became something of a family affair. Dr. Bean and Amy had five daughters then, and all five worked there over the years.
“They all worked in some capacity, under slave labor, under duress, so to speak,” he commented with a chuckle. “One of them in service, one in grooming, and three of them had worked in the kennel and this and that.”
While their livelihood centered around health problems of animals, the Bean family has dealt with their own medical issues. In addition to the five daughters, Dr. Bean and Amy have two sons, and the youngest, Austin, was born in 2004 with Down’s Syndrome and a serious heart condition. On top of that, Amy’s father was diagnosed with liver cancer, and she was his primary caregiver his last eight months. That changed her outlook on life, according to Bean.
“When he passed away, Amy said ‘I’ll never again be in a situation where I’m not medically inclined to know what to do, what to ask.’ So — she had a degree in journalism from UGA — she went back to school and got a nursing degree and graduated at age 56.”
Bean reported that his wife worked in an emergency room for a little over a year then obtained certification on the pulmonary floor of what was Houston Healthcare, now Emory, in Warner Robins, the same week the first COVID patient was admitted.
“She went through all the rigmarole of being in the hospital with COVID … it was very traumatic to her that they lost a lot of folks early on … And so,” he went on, “there was a big learning curve, but she’s been on that floor ever since.”
However, the needs and circumstances of Austin have changed the Beans’ focus. Austin went through the special ed program in Jones County schools but will not be eligible for that beginning this May when he turns 22. Amy Bean has reduced her working hours, and the veterinarian decided to sell his business and change jobs to be available more.
“We’ve altered our schedule so that she went from full-time nursing to two days a week,” Bean reported, “and I’m taking on this new job working for a company called Codapet doing nothing but at-home euthanasia. That way we can work around each other’s schedule, and when one of us is at work, the other one’s got Austin and vice versa.”
Bean said his new job goes full circle to an experience he had when he was 16 years old. He had to take the family pet to be euthanized, and he made a vow then, if he ever got the opportunity, he would, in his words, “never make another pet or an owner go through what I just went through.
“And now, X number of years later, that’s exactly my plan. I’ve tried my best to save everything for the past 30 years, and for the next however long God gives me the opportunity to work, I’m going to assist families in escorting their pets away from here and hopefully not making it as emotionally trying as what I went through at 16 years of age.”
Bean left the animal hospital in late December and was surprised when he was the center of attention at the office Christmas party.
“At the end, I thought we were done and getting ready to go back to work, and the staff brought out gifts, and it was nice. Dr. Proctor actually wrote a poem. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the place. Neither one of us could read it. Her tech read it out loud.”
When asked last week how long he will continue working at his new job, Bean quickly replied, “As long as the Lord lets me physically. I enjoy working, I enjoy helping people.”
