Beryl C. Taylor, VMD, a New Jersey equine veterinarian who cared for generations of brood mares and foals that went on to race at tracks around the world, died on Tuesday, May 23, after a short illness. He was 73.

Beryl – known as "Butch" to childhood friends and family – was born in Plainfield, N.J. and grew up in nearby Westfield, the younger of two sons of Noel and Thelma Taylor, who taught biology and English, respectively, at Westfield High School. When he was born, his mother acquired a book designed to chart a child's development from birth to age 16, and she diligently kept it up for many years. Initially that meant noting the dates of developmental milestones such as crawling (6 months) and his first words ("Dada" and "bow wow!") But later, the book supplied questions parents were supposed to ask their children, with space to note the answers. The year Beryl turned 7, it included a question that would turn out to be prophetic: "What does he think he wants to do when he grows up?" Next to it, in pen, his mother jotted his response: "Veterinarian."

It was an ambition from which Beryl never wavered. From the earliest age he loved animals, particularly the family beagle, Queenie, and he developed a special interest in horses in high school, after taking a summer job running the riding program at Camp Wawayanda, a YMCA camp in the Catskills. (It was a job he was lucky to get, he admitted, since at the time he was hired, he knew very little about either riding or horses.)

Later, while studying biology at Gettysburg College, Beryl worked part-time at nearby Hanover Shoe Farms, a facility known internationally for the standardbred racehorses it produced; he then was accepted to the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, where he was the valedictorian of the Class of 1975. His mother noted the occasion by inking a proud footnote to the question in Year 7 of his baby book. "Interestingly … Beryl is now Dr. Beryl Taylor VMD - No. 1 graduate of U of P veterinary school," she wrote.

Beryl initially envisioned joining a veterinary practice that treated both large and small animals. But after interviewing with a number of established veterinarians who were looking for associates, he discovered that few such practices existed, and since he had a growing family to support, he took a job at Wright Veterinary Medical Center, a small-animal practice in Bethlehem, Pa. It didn't take long for him to realize, however, that he missed working with horses. So a few years later, when an equine veterinarian who'd tried to recruit him after his vet-school graduation reached out again, he jumped at the opportunity, joining Walnridge Equine Clinic in Cream Ridge, N.J. and working there for a few years before starting his own practice.

Over the next four decades, Beryl was a familiar sight driving the roads in and around Cream Ridge with a passel of dogs riding shotgun in SUVs he chose in part for their unusual colors. (The most recent one was electric blue.) Though he had plenty of clients who kept just one or two riding horses, his bread and butter were the many commercial South Jersey farms that produced standardbred and thoroughbred racehorses for tracks around the world. Among his major clients over the years: Fair Winds Farm and Perretti Farms in Cream Ridge, Bright View Farm in Chesterfield, and Boxwood Farm in Englishtown. To the uninitiated, he often described his job as that of "ob/gyn-pediatrician" for horses, meaning that he figured out when brood mares were due to ovulate and, therefore, when they should be bred; he then cared for the mares during their 11 months of pregnancy, dealt with complicated deliveries, and provided care for the foals until they went off to auction at age 2. Even after decades of such work, Beryl could still be found leaning on a paddock fence, marveling at the sight of an hours-old foal trotting after its mother.

Off duty, Beryl spent hours on the phone with clients who had become friends, talking them through the care of an ailing cat or advising them on some puppy-training dilemma, even though the string of high-spirited flat coated retrievers he owned over the years were not, as he himself cheerfully admitted, particularly good advertisements for his dog-training skills. He was passionately interested in art and art history, and enjoyed taking classes in those subjects. He also loved gardening and cooking (his spinach casserole and mac and cheese were in demand at family gatherings; his personal favorite, stuffed pig's stomach, less so) and he spent so much time in the local grocery store that he and some of the longtime cashiers were on each other's Christmas card lists. Though Beryl and his wife of 24 years, Laura Muha, occasionally traveled, Beryl was at heart a homebody, and his family sometimes joked that his idea of a change of scenery entailed a shift to the opposite end of the couch, where he worked crossword puzzles, traded Wordle scores with his younger son and devotedly followed Monday Night Football – he was a die-hard Eagles fan – as well as the NCAA basketball playoffs and major golf tournaments such as the Master's and the U.S. Open.

In addition to his wife, Beryl is survived by his sons and daughters-in-law, Mark and Kim Taylor of Savannah, Ga., and David Taylor and Cozette Cuppett of Barrington, R.I.; his brother and sister-in-law, Mark and Dinny Taylor of Williamstown, Mass.; and his five grandchildren, Benjamin, Griffin, Noah, Madeline and Charlotte Taylor.

A memorial service will be held at Fair Winds Farm, 74 Red Valley Road, Cream Ridge, N.J., on Saturday, June 24 at 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution in Beryl's memory to the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School's Scholarship Fund .