Dr. Wayne E. North

1949 - 2022

News story
By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer

Dr. Wayne E. North, a longtime Toledo-area veterinarian whose way with companion animals won the respect of colleagues and his human clients, died Dec. 4 in ProMedica Toledo Hospital. He was 73.

The cause was heart failure, his husband, David Bingham, said. He had been recovering from coronavirus. He learned he had leukemia earlier this year and had kidney failure.

The Old West End resident died 17 years to the day after the couple met at the Holiday with Heart Charity Gayla, the LGBTQ+ fund-raiser, held annually at the Toledo Club. This year's event, the 45th edition, also was Dec. 4.

Dr. North, for more than 30 years, was associated with Perrysburg Animal Care of Ohio, which he founded in the late 1970s.

"He was excellent at diagnosing, and he really improved the quality of animal care," Mr. Bingham said. "He wanted to have the latest technology and the things to advance the practice."

Perrysburg Animal Care initially cared for horses and companion animals, but after 1985 concentrated the practice to companion animals only, Dr. North wrote in his LinkedIn profile.

"He liked the furry ones," Mr. Bingham said. Those with scales or feathers received care as well.

His human clients might hear a blunt verdict.

"He would gladly tell you if your pet was too fat. He would tell you what to feed it," Mr. Bingham said. "He was very tender with animals."

He would not euthanize animals merely at the owner's request. Dr. North wrote in a 2006 to The Blade Readers' Forum that the choice of euthanasia should be the last option to attain relief from an animal's suffering.

"...I have refused to euthanize animals that I know could have been treated successfully and I have been vilified because I have done so," Dr. North wrote. Still, he found it traumatic, even when deemed necessary.

"That would be a very bad day when he would have to euthanize an animal," Mr. Bingham said.

He began his career in the early 1970s as an associate of Whitehouse Animal Hospital. Most recently, he worked several days a week at Reynolds Road Animal Hospital.

"The working relationship was great - his charisma, dry sense of humor, just his overall aura preceded him," said Dr. Roger Grothaus of Reynolds Road Animal Hospital. "Everyone loved him. You could tell, because a lot of his clients followed him. He brought a lot of fun and excitement to the day."

His knowledge and the depth of his experience came through daily - "how he worked well with others and how he explained things to clients," Dr. Grothaus said. "His surgical skills were immaculate. He led his team well. Wayne had such a well-roundedness in the veterinary world that it was amazing to watch. He could jump into anything."

He was a past president of the Toledo Veterinary Medical Association and a past president of Perrysburg Kiwanis Club.

He was a past president and veterinary adviser to Assistance Dogs of America. He also formerly raised and showed English setters.

For years, he and Mr. Bingham worked on the committee organizing the Holiday with Heart Gayla, and Dr. North became chairman.

"He kept us all together and kept us on track. Wayne was the glue," said Jack Howard, chairman for the last two years. "Wayne was a generous person, and he saw this as a way of being involved and giving back to the community."

The couple's wedding took place on inauguration day, 2017, at the Toledo Club, before 120 guests. They'd been having dinner on election night, 2016, when Mr. Bingham said, "'Do you think we ought to get married before we can't?'" he recalled. "He said yes. He had that wedding planned in two weeks. He was an event planner, that's why he did so well with Holiday with Heart."

Dr. North was a former member of St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in Perrysburg. Once relocated to the Old West End, he volunteered for projects at St. Mark's Episcopal Church. The congregation merged in January, 2012, with the historic Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Toledo. He led a fund-raising campaign to restore the long-silent Gardner Chimes in the Trinity bell tower.

"He was the kind of person who became involved in whatever he did," Mr. Bingham said. "He was a dynamic personality who filled the room every time he was in it."

He was born April 18, 1949, in Sunbury, Pa., to Grace and the Rev. Wayne E. North. His father was a Methodist minister, and the family moved as he accepted calls to congregations in Detroit, Adrian, and Midland, Mich. Dr. North was a 1967 graduate of Midland High School.

Following a five-year course of study, he received a doctor of veterinary medicine degree in 1972 from Michigan State University.

He was formerly married to Sara Mayhew Huber.

Surviving are his husband, David Bingham, whom he married Jan. 20, 2017; daughters Rachel Marvin and Kathryn Freesh; son, Tyler North; stepdaughter, Lydia McKinley; stepson, Zachariah Bingham; sister, Rhea North; seven grandchildren, and three step-grandchildren,

A celebration of life will begin at 10 a.m. Jan. 7 at Trinity Episcopal Church.

The family suggests tributes to the Holiday with Heart Fund in care of the Greater Toledo Community Foundation or Trinity Episcopal Church for the upkeep of the Gardner Chimes.