Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds was surrounded by Dr. Ann Garvey’s family last week at the signing of the proclamation making today Dr. Ann Marie Garvey Appreciation Day. Pictured from left are, Dr. Jenny Groos, Judy Peters, Dr. Chris Groos, Brandon Garvey, Ava Garvey, Lilly Garvey, and Henry Groos, all of Norwalk.

Today, in Iowa, it’s Dr. Ann Garvey Appreciation Day.

And it would have been her 19th wedding anniversary. Dec. 5, 2003, was the day Ann Marie Peters married Brandon Garvey at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church. She was a Webster City homecoming queen; he was from Stratford.

But that’s not the reason it’s a day of appreciation for the young woman who became a veterinarian. Today is Dr. Ann Garvey Appreciation Day because Gov. Kim Reynolds chose to honor the woman who was her colleague, a bond that grew when Covid put the pair together in close quarters as the state battled the pandemic and, as it turns out, Garvey battled cancer.

Garvey was 46 when she died Nov. 1.

“Dr. Garvey was a critical member of the state’s COVID-19 emergency response team and a model of grace, fortitude, and resilience throughout the pandemic — even while battling her own personal health crisis,” the proclamation Reynolds signed last week reads.

“Her eternal optimism, courage, steadfast spirit, and faith demonstrated to all how to live fully and presently every day. (She) was a cherished wife, mother, daughter, and sister, a dearly loved friend and colleague; and a loyal public servant whose legacy lives on in the many lives she touched.”

She started her dream job with the Iowa Department of Public Health as the State of

Iowa Public Health Veterinarian in 2008, according to her family. She later also became Deputy State Epidemiologist and Bureau Chief for the Center for Acute Disease Epidemiology.

“Dr. Garvey represented Iowa nationally as president of the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians, successfully leading initiatives to enhance collaboration with animal health professionals and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” Reynolds says in her proclamation.

A graduate of Webster City High School in 1994, she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Loras College in Dubuque in 1998, Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2002, and a Master of Public Health degree at the University of Iowa in the practicing veterinarian program in 2003. She began her career as an agriculture specialist and state exercise training officer for the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division. She went on to earn a Master of Arts degree in Security Studies (Homeland Security and Defense) from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, in 2006.

None of that could rise above the love she had for her family.

“Her daughters Ava Noel and Lillian Sylvia were her pride and joy. She taught them kindness, humility and strength by example,” according to her family. “She attended every activity

she could over the years and when she couldn’t, she lined up family or friends to make sure

someone was there in her place to cheer them on. Even when she was too weak to get out of

a vehicle, you could find her at her girl’s softball games last summer.”

She became, finally, too weak on a Tuesday, which just happened to be All Saints Day.

“Do what you want to me, just fix me,” she would tell her doctors. She wanted to see her girls through high school, a goal some may see as particularly humble in the shadow of her many professional accomplishments.

She loved to travel, and she loved big dogs.

“To know Ann was to love her,” her family wrote. “She had the biggest heart and was the kindest, most genuine person you could know. She had the ability to make everyone she came into contact with feel welcome and important. Ann didn’t shy away from any opportunity for adventure or fun.”

But the Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma she battled since the summer of 2018 took her.

She was born on March 11, 1976, in Jefferson.

She was honored on this day by her friend. “Now, therefore, I, Kim Reynolds, Governor of the State of Iowa, do hereby proclaim December, 5, 2022, as Dr. Ann Marie Garvey Appreciation Day.”