Bryant Gomm

Bryant Gomm had an unusual job while he attended USU in the late 1940s. He was hired, along with two other students, by the Vet Science department to live in the Vet Science building and help take care of the animals in the barns. Mr. Gomm's primary job was to care for the rabbits, chickens, and turkeys and to help keep the building clean. On weekends when one of the other students, Daniel Dennis, was not around, Mr. Gomm also looked after the horses. This involved feeding the horses and taking them to the cow barn to water them.

One particular experience with the horse barn stands out in Mr. Gomm's memory. He said that one time as he headed to the horse barn, he decided to let out a loud coyote yelp. He hadn't expected the reaction that he got. "Those horses stomped and jerked around. I thought they were going to tear the place apart before I could get them calmed back down." These were draft horses, either Percherons or Morgans, and Mr. Gomm remembers that they were very gentle, "except when I coyote'd them."

For his hard work, Mr. Gomm was paid 40 cents an hour. This, along with the milk, eggs, and meat from the chickens and rabbits that the Vet Science department let him keep, helped Mr. Gomm work his way through college. He went on to get a PhD in plant physiology and worked for the USDA, as well as occasionally teaching classes at Utah State University.