The Meadow Brook Farm Animal Chair was endowed by a $2 million gift from the Matilda R. Wilson Fund. The Meadow Brook Farm Animal Chair in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences focuses on enhancing and ensuring the health, nutrition, and wellbeing of farm animals—some of Matilda Wilson's lifetime goals. The chair is named after her beloved farm, Meadow Brook.

Healthy farm animals benefit people because they are less likely to have infectious diseases and have reduced need for medical treatment, such as antibiotics that could subsequently taint the food supply. The MSU Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences is responsible for the health and wellbeing of horses, cattle, sheep, and swine. It teaches large animal veterinarians, expands knowledge through research, and applies research through clinical work and outreach.

Research at the Laboratory has focused on developing solutions to control mastitis in dairy cattle through investigation of the interaction between nutrition and immunology during times of increased susceptibility to disease. The Laboratory's work has generated an understanding of why cows succumb to mastitis, and has provided scientists and dairy producers a clear understanding of therapeutic targets to pursue.

Dr. Lorraine M. Sordillo joined the MSU faculty in January 2004. She was the first to hold the Meadow Brook Farm Animal Chair. Sordillo received her PhD in bovine immunology from Louisiana State University. After that, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Animal Science Department at the University of Tennessee, and from there, joined the immunology group of the Veterinary Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan. She spent most of her professional career at Pennsylvania State University in the Veterinary Science Department.

Sordillo's broad research area was bovine mastitis. This is a common and devastating disease of cows and a costly problem to the dairy industry. The specific focus of Sordillo's research was to better understand the interaction between the bovine mammary gland and infectious agents that cause mastitis. Her goal was to find ways to enhance the natural immunity of the mammary gland during times of increased susceptibility to mastitis.

Sordillo’s research resulted in more than 100 papers in the refereed scientific literature. She wrote numerous chapters in books and monographs, and served as the primary advisor to 25 graduate students and on the advisory committees of many more.

She held 5 patents for products related to bovine immunology or immunology research, and was awarded more than $7,000,000 in support of her research efforts from a variety of sources including industry contacts, the United States Department of Agriculture National Resources Inventory, and the National Institutes of Health. Sordillo served on many national committees, and received several national awards for her research, including the Agway Inc. Young Scientist Award and the West Agro Award, each presented by the American Dairy Science Association; the Distinguished Veterinary Immunologist Award, presented by the American Association of Veterinary Immunologist; and the Pfizer Award for Veterinary Research Excellence. Her research skills included many cellular and molecular techniques, and she had the ability to apply the rapidly expanding technologies of molecular biology and genomics to the disease problems of farm animals.

Sordillo passed away on September 10, 2021.

Matilda Rausch Dodge Wilson and her husband John Dodge, the automotive pioneer, bought the 320-acre Meadow Brook farm near Rochester, Michigan. The chair is named after this farm. Following the death of John Dodge, she married lumber broker Alfred Gaston Wilson. They moved to Meadow Brook and acquired 8 additional farms, building a 2,600-acre working farm that employed 40 workers.

One of those workers was George D, Miller, Jr., now partner in a Detroit law firm and president of the Matilda R. Wilson Fund. “I knew her as both her farmhand and her lawyer,” said Miller. “I’m aware of her feeling toward farm animals—horses in particular. The College of Veterinary Medicine is forward-looking, and I know that Mrs. Wilson was involved and supportive of it while alive. I’m happy to continue that connection in the form of her legacy.”

Matilda Wilson, a committed philanthropist, served as an MSU trustee from 1931 to 1937, and was named trustee emeritus in 1960.

MSU gave her an honorary degree in 1955, and named Wilson Residence Hall in honor of her and her husband in 1962. In 1957, the Wilson’s gave most of their land holdings, including Meadow Brook Hall, and a $200 million endowment to MSU to found a branch of the University that eventually became the independent institution Oakland University. Matilda Wilson also helped fund the John A. Hannah endowed chairs.

In 1985, the Matilda R. Wilson Fund, a charitable trust she had established in Detroit, gave more than $1 million to MSU to establish the Matilda R. Wilson Chair in Large Animal Clinical Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine, and in 1998, it gave another $1.5 million to create the Matilda R. Wilson Equine Respiratory Disease Research Endowment in the College.

Speaking four decades ago, Matilda Wilson said, “My long association with MSU has shown me the tremendous contribution it is making to our educational and cultural life.” Read more about Matilda Wilson's legacy at MSU.