Eugene “Doc” Owen graduated from The Ohio State University in 1961 with a dream of owning his own clinic: a practice based on compassionate, honest veterinary medicine. He and his wife, Lola, opened the practice that summer. The original Hillcrest Veterinary Clinic was set up in a converted garage beside their house. In 1966, they built the stand-alone clinic.

Doc had a great dedication and love, not only for animals and veterinary medicine, but also for the Morgantown community. He worked closely with the local rescue groups to spay and neuter. He also enjoyed having veterinary students complete their internship with him and even employed a veterinarian from Egypt for a while. Doc continued to practice small and large animal medicine until his sudden death in April 1989.

At that time Doc’s daughter, Kelley Owen, was in her third year of veterinary school at Tuskegee University. Lola was able to keep the clinic open as a boarding kennel until Kelley graduated in 1990. Continuing her father’s legacy, she began her own practice in the existing facility in June of 1990 with Lola continuing her role as technician and manager.

Fast forward to present, and we are still providing compassionate, honest, small animal medicine, and we have continued to grow! In 2008, we were lucky to add Dr. Aaron Pollock to the practice. He graduated from Doc’s alma mater, The Ohio State University, in 1999. In 2016, we added our 3rd doctor, Dr. Molly Allen, a native of Fairmont. She completed her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine at The Ohio State University in 2007. Dr. Mikell Adair was next to join the practice as our 4th doctor in 2018. Dr. Adair also graduated from The Ohio State University in 2007 and is a native of Fairmont. We welcomed Dr. Franci Kenney to our team in 2019 as our 5th doctor. She completed her studies at The University of Georgia in 1991. Next we welcomed Dr. Ryan Hart, who joined the team in 2022 as our 6th doctor. He graduated from The Ohio State University’s School of Veterinary Medicine in 2020. Finally in 2024 we added Dr. Jaclyn Warner to our team as our 7th doctor! She completed her Bachelor of Science in Animal Nutrition at West Virginia University and obtained her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine on Virginia Tech’s campus in 2016. 

In 2014 we opened our brand new, state-of-the-art facility in the parking lot of the old facility. Since then we have continued to provide our same level of compassionate animal care in a larger, more modern facility.

Even as we continue to grow, we remain mindful of maintaining our small-town clinic with it’s family feel and our mission to work closely with local rescue groups to help with the overpopulation of animals by sponsoring adoptions and providing spay/neuter procedures.