Meet the Doctors
Dr. Robert Flecker
Dr. Flecker has a wide range of experience in veterinary medicine as a practitioner, business owner and consultant. His interests include oncology, dermatology, dentistry and surgery. Dr. Flecker obtained a bachelor’s degree in Zoology from Humboldt State University and worked as a fisheries and marine mammal biologist in Alaska before starting a Ph.D. program in marine ecology at the University of Rhode Island. He left that program to enter veterinary school and earned doctorates, with highest honors, in veterinary medicine from both Oregon State University and Washington State University. In 1987, he established Meridian Park Veterinary Hospital, which he operated until 1999. He established the Oregon Veterinary Radiation Oncology Practice in 1997 and the Hillsdale Veterinary Group in 2002.
Dr. Flecker has served on the Oregon Veterinary Association Animal Welfare Committee as a board member and as an adjunct instructor for the Veterinary Technology Program at Portland Community College. He has acted as an expert witness for animal abuse cases in Oregon and Washington, as vice president of the Hillsdale Business and Professional Association, and as the chairman of the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association Off-Leash Park task force. He also has served on the executive board of the Tualatin Chamber of Commerce and organized an annual community event focusing on pets.
His personal interests include bicycling, whitewater kayaking, skiing, running, yoga, backpacking and swimming. He lives in Hillsdale with his wife Mary, who is business manager of the practice, their son Sam, and two pets—a cat (Lightning) and a dog (Marty).
Dr. Joe Beswick
Dr. Joe Beswick has had a wide-ranging career since obtaining his undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences, with honors, from Florida Atlantic University. He received a Masters in Entomology in 1999, and graduated from the University of Florida with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree, cum laude, in 2005.
Dr. Beswick’s interests include dentistry, dermatology, internal medicine and diagnostic imaging. He has completed additional coursework in these disciplines.
Dr. Beswick has volunteered in spaying feral and stray cats for several organizations, participated in a shelter medicine program, worked in research positions studying potassium channel molecular physiology and biological methods for controlling tick populations, taught biology and animal physiology courses and participated in a gopher tortoise conservation project. He also speaks fluent Spanish.
Dr. Beswick and his wife live in northwest Portland. When not at work, he enjoys road and mountain biking, hiking, modern architecture, furniture and collectibles, and playing with his two Jack Russell terriers.