Tyrrell gift will name cardiology service in expanded Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Virginia Tech
The volunteer time and energy Bill Tyrrell DVM '92 has already given to the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine cannot easily be quantified, but would probably value in the millions of dollars.
Yet, on top of that, Bill and his wife, Jennifer, are giving $1 million to the planned Veterinary Teaching Hospital renovation and expansion, moving the project a step closer to completion.
Tyrrell is the co-founder and co-chief medical officer at CVCA: Cardiac Care for Pets based in Leesburg. With the $1 million gift, the Tyrrells will receive naming rights for the teaching hospital’s cardiology service.
“Virginia Tech has given so much to me and my family, and I really credit Virginia Tech and the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine with my successes and my family's ability to be able to do this now,” Tyrrell said. “It enriches me to be able to give back.”
In 2024, Virginia Tech’s Board of Visitors approved a $4.3 million planning authorization to begin the design process of a monumental renovation and expansion of the teaching hospital.
The full vision is a renovation of approximately 25,000 existing gross square feet and the addition of approximately 32,000 gross square feet. Construction is scheduled to begin in December 2026 pending final Board of Visitors approval with completion in November 2028.
A philanthropy campaign seeking $15 million is ongoing, with Tyrrell’s gift part of $6 million already donated toward that goal. If the private giving goal is reached, it will add to other funding sources earmarked for the project and would allow the expansion size to be maximized and the veterinary college’s vision to be fully realized.
“The same hospital was here when I was there, and I graduated 33 years ago,” said Tyrrell, the chair of the dean’s advisory council at the veterinary college. “We've increased the class size by over 50 percent -- we went from basically 80 to 130 students -- plus the needs for specialty and emergency care have increased exponentially.”
Since 1987, the number of specialties provided by the teaching hospital has grown from five to 14. The hospital’s caseload has increased dramatically, too. Over 13,000 dogs and cats, 800 horses, 200 cows, 150 sheep and goats, and 60 pigs receive clinical care in the hospital each year.
“It's an obvious need,” said Tyrrell. “Bricks and mortar aren't fancy, but it is nice to have something that you know is going to be there. Hopefully it'll be there long after I die. Scholarships live on in perpetuity and potentially affect a lot of people, but I also think there's such a great need for the teaching hospital expansion and renovation, and I think it's also going to touch many students' lives. It will help treat and cure many, many pets, and since they are members of our families, it's going to affect those humans lives too.”
Tyrrell received the veterinary college’s Lifetime Achievement Alumni Award in 2019. He has served as president of the veterinary college’s Alumni Society, president of the Virginia Veterinary Medical Association, and a member of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association Board of Directors — the first representative from the veterinary college. He is currently treasurer of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Board of Regents. He is also active in his community serving on the Inova Loudoun Hospital Foundation Board.
“Giving back is simply the Virginia Tech way,” Tyrrell said.
“Virginia Tech has meant so much to me,” Tyrrell said. “The motto, Ut Prosim, That I May Serve, that’s ingrained into all of us from day one, through orientation and through everything here at Tech, that's stuck with me. It’s a duty for people who went to Virginia Tech to give back to our alma mater”.
Tyrrell’s vision for both the veterinary college and Virginia Tech as a whole is expansive.
“I told everyone at the Dean's Advisory Council,” Tyrrell said, “with the brains around this table, with the leadership we have with our dean and the senior leadership team we have in place at Virginia Tech, that the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine is going to be the premier teaching hospital and college of veterinary medicine across the country that everybody's going to emulate. And I truly believe that. I get emotional thinking about it.”
