Gordon "Doc" Hazard of West Point Mississippi died Tuesday at 94 years of age. Although we don't normally do obituaries here, the passing on of Doc Hazard seems like something of which we should make note and perhaps shed a tear.

Hazard was a pioneer in the industry for grazing management, cost management and sell-buy cattle marketing, plus many other unorthodox wisdoms. He focused on profit when the rest of the industry was imprudently chasing production.

He blended his knowledge as a veterinarian with whatever new knowledge he could gather in or think up on his own. Moreover, he would share that knowledge with anyone who asked him, and he did it in his Southern, gentlemanly way.

He leaves behind his family, a successful cattle operation of considerable acreage, a wonderful book on building success in the cattle business called Thoughts and advice from an old cattleman, and another book that's his account of his days as an infantry lieutenant in World War II called World War II, As I Remember.

In 2014 I interviewed Doc Hazard on video about wise money management in the cattle business and you can watch his comments here.

Over the years we've written several articles about Doc Hazard's ideas:

http://magissues.farmprogress.com/MOR/MR01Jan14/mor087.pdf

http://www.beefproducer.com/blogs-news-flash-gordon-hazard-doesnt-own-cattle-9123

http://mydigimag.rrd.com/publication/?i=238929&article_id=1885943&view=articleBrowser&ver=html5#{"issue_id":238929,"view":"articleBrowser","article_id":"1885943"}

Share your memories about Doc Hazard in the comments below.