James Richards, 58, a renowned Cornell University cat veterinarian, died Tuesday of injuries suffered when he crashed his motorcycle Sunday while trying to avoid a cat on the road, the university said.

Richards, the director of Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine’s Feline Health Center in Ithaca, N.Y., regularly appeared on television to discuss the world of cats.

An authority on vaccination protocols for cats, he was a former president of the American Assn. of Feline Practitioners and author of several books and articles on cats, including the “ASPCA Complete Guide to Cats.”

He was born July 19, 1948, in Richmond, Ind., and held a mathematics degree from Berea College in Kentucky and a doctorate in veterinary medicine from Ohio State University.


He joined the Cornell veterinary college in 1991 as assistant director of the Feline Health Center and was named director in 1997.