Raymond Alexander Kelser
Raymond Alexander Kelser (2 December 1892 – 16 April 1952) was an American veterinary microbiologist who served in the US Army. He developed vaccines and diagnostic tests for several diseases of animals and humans. He developed a vaccine serum using chloroform-inactivated rabies virus injected into animals. He co-authored a textbook of veterinary bacteriology in 1927 which went into several editions. Biography Kelser was born in Washington, DC, to Baltimore mechanic Charles and his wife Josie Potter. Educated in local public schools he studied business and worked as a messenger at the Bureau of Animal Industry in the US Department of Agriculture where he met John R. Mohler, chief of the pathology division who made him his secretary. He then became a laboratory assistant and then began to attend evening classes in veterinary medicine at the George Washington University and graduated in 1914. He then joined government service and was posted to the Bureau of Animal Industry to work on foot-and-mouth disease. He worked on an anthrax vaccine apart from tetanus antitoxins. In 1918 he was inducted into the Veterinary Corps as a lieutenant during World War I. After the war, he continued to work with the army at various laboratories.