University of Maryland Baltimore Dental School - Mirror Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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Silver Anniversary Gardner P. H. ft Professor of Folev -M A. m Dental Literature Of the men who have given much of (their energies to the enrichment of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery as a leading dental institution, certainly few have contributed more than Gardner P. H. Foley, who at this time completes his twenty-fifth year as a member of the University of Mary- land faculty. As Professor of Dental Literature, Mr. Foley has been not only an intelligent advisor and instructor of dental students, but also an enthusiastic contributor to dental literature in he United States. His writings have appeared in both the Journal of the American Dental Association and the Journal of the American College of Dentists, as well as in the Journal of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, which he now serves as editor. Since 1938, he has served as advisor to the Mirror Staff. Further, Mr. Foley holds the distinction of being one of five founders of the American ]Academy of the History of Dentistry, and he is currently representing this group as editor for the second suc- cessive year. He is well known in the alumni association of the University, as a prolific contributor to Maryland Magazine, the publication of that group. Evidence of his interest in the student body of the dental school is reflected by the fact that his presentation before a faculty seminar two years ago led to the formation of the now-functioning student senate. In 1928 Mr. Foley accepted an appointment in the Department of English of the University, assigned to the School of Pharmacy. Previously he had served on the faculties of the University of Tennessee and the University of Mississippi. In 19 29 he became a member of the faculty in the School of Dentistry, predental course. Until 1941 he taught students of both schools; in that year, however, he was selected by the School of Dentistry to teach the course in Oral and Written Expres- sion, a new departure for dental schools. During the past decade the course has come to be a valuable addition to the curriculum. Gardner P. H. Foley was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, March 18, 1902. It was here that he attended public schools, and worked in the bank of which his Father was the President during his summer vacations from Clark University, where he studied for both the Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees. The experience gained from working with his father enabled him to become an authority on banking correspondence, and he has lectured frequently before the chapters of the American Banking Institute in both Washington and Baltimore. While studying in the undergrad- uate school at Clark, Mr. Foley gave much of his time to dramatics and various student publications; he did not, however, forget his love for sports, for he earned his letters in both track and soccer. Mr. Foley had been away from Gloucester twelve years when the Annual Fisherman ' s Memorial Exercises were held in 1937, but the citizens of the city had not forgotten him. In that year he was asked to give the principal address on the day set aside to honor those men who had lost their lives in the coastal waters of New England. Certainly, Mr. Foley ' s many duties while associated with the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery have not prevented him from actively participating in various civic functions in Baltimore. He has appeared in leading roles at the Vagabond Theatre and at the Johns Hopkins Playshop, and has made several appearances during the past few years on the program of the Enoch Pratt Library, Afternoons With the Poets. To be sure, the twenty-five years have been rich in experiences for Gardner Foley; rich, too, for those students who have known him during these years.

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% ean of the University of Maryland School of Dentistry I J. Ben Robinson, D.D. S., Sc. D., F. A. C. D. Doctor J. Ben Robinson received his undergraduate training at Marshall College. After a period of postgraduate study at West Virginia University he spent six years as a teacher in the public schools of West Virginia. In 1911 he began the study of dentistry at the University of Maryland. On his graduation (magna cum laiide) in 1914 he joined the faculty of his alma mater as Demonstrator of Operative Dentistry. In 1917 Dr. Robinson was appointed Professor of Clinical Dentistry, and in 1918, Professor of Operative Dentistry. He filled this chair until 1921, when he resigned and was elected President of the Maryland State Dental Association. Appointed by Governor Ritchie to the State B}ard of Dental Examiners, Dr. Robinson served from 1922 to 1924, when he resigned to become Dean of the Dental School. Under his skillful and wise administration the world ' s oldest dentil college has continued to gain in the strength of its faculty, the value of its curriculum, and the quality of its graduates. Dr. Robinson ' s enthusiastic support of measures for the achievement and maintenance of high standards in dental education; his ardent interest in dental history; his ability to speak and write effectively on the important questions related to dentistry; his forceful and highly capable leadership on all levels of dental organization; his noteworthy fulfillment of the pro- fessional man ' s obligations to his community — these qualifications make Dean Robinson a man whom his fellow alumni and other professional associates proudly hail as an outstanding figure in American dentistry.

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James Baxter Bean (Class of I860) (This is the second in a series of articles about distinguished graduates of the School.) When the faculty of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery presented its degree to James Baxter Bean in 1860, the young graduate expressed an earnest desire to explore the technical procedures of dentistry. This he ultimately did, to be sure; yet Bean ' s contribu- tions to the progress of his profession were just as significant in other phases of the science. In 1865 the Surgeon-General of the Confederate States of America wrote Doctor Bean, saying that: . . . you are instructed to hold yourself in readiness to be ordered to any hos- pital, where your services may be required in the application and adjustment of your appara- tus for treating fractures of the inferior and superior maxillary bones. So it came to be that the young doctor ' s method, which called for the use of a vulcanite interdental splint, was recognized as the most efficient and practical means of reducing fractures of the mandible and maxilla. Bean, however, attached so little importance to the apparatus that he made no attempt to report either the manner of his treatment, or the case histories involved, in any of the dental or medical journals of the period. Actually, it is doubtful that Bean would have devoted so much time to the application of the splint, h ad it not been for the demands placed on him by the dentists and surgeons of the Confederacy. Doctor Bean was born in a small village in Tennessee, July 19, 1834. Before enter- ing the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, he had studied and practiced medicine in the small post-town of Micanopy, Florida. He returned to Micanopy after his graduation in Baltimore, but within the year he had moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Here his reputation as a competent dental operator became better established; it was here, too, that he did much of the research on his interdental splint. It is noteworthy that Doctor Bean belonged to that rather small group of American dentists who had the advantage of a formal dental education; further, the men of this group were confronted primarily with the most elementary problems involved in the repair and replacement of the teeth. To many, however, operative dentistry was at best a te- dious, expensive, and often uncertain procedure. Consequently, many dentists of the early nineteenth century were interested in improving the available means of replacing missing teeth. Bean himself exemplified this interest in many ways. His first published paper, Plaster and Its Manipulation, involved a discussion of methods for producing accurate impressions and articulated, antagonizing models. The doctor ' s ingenuity and experi- ence then led him to several years of research on the interdental splint. However, soon after the war, Bean moved to Baltimore and continued his study of several dental tech- niques which he felt could be improved upon. One of his more extensive studies involved the use of aluminum as a denture base material. Although very enthusiastic for a time about its possibilities, he was not successful in winning acceptance for its use. However, his paper on the subject described a unique method of casting aluminum bases, and his efforts contributed much to the development of the casting process. Doctor Bean ' s last published paper was a description of his method for restoring porcelain crowns to root portions of anterior teeth, by means of dowels similar to those used today. Before he could carry on further studies, an untimely death ended his short career. In the summer of 1870, Bean sailed from New York to Europe for an extended vacation. While in France, he was persuaded by a group of energetic and adventurous friends to join in a mountain-climbing expedition. The group was completely inexperienced in such mat- ters, and all lost their lives on the mountain, attempting to descend from its summit. Thus the dental profession lost a man who, at thirty-seven, was greatly respected for his con- tributions to dental research, as well as for his considerable talents which had brought improvements to methods developed by men who had preceded him. {7}