University of Southern California School of Dentistry - El Molaro (Los Angeles, CA)

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East LA. College, Calif. State University L.A., B.S., M.S., Delta Sigma Delta Fraternity. and then I did ttiis and stie said yes. ' Wtiile everyone else in the lab was carving and waxing, Tony ' s mind was on Dee, the lady who sat across the aisle. After a year of courtship, which included many romantic moments in the lab, Tony persuaded Dee to marry him. He was smarter than we realized then, because not only is Dee attractive and intelligent, she was a hygienist. She began working two or three nights a week to help support them. In his junior year Tony discovered that there was money to be made with his knowledge of crown and bridge techniques-making jewelry. Tony spent the first two trimesters in the clinic making and selling necklaces and rings. But he soon realized that that would not graduate him from school after he received his clinical accomplishment record. He went back reluctantly to making crowns. Tony is a multi-talented guy. He does accounting for his brother, makes jewelry and stars for the Delt ' s volleyball and football teams. The football caused Tony to learn to do left handed dentistry after injurying a thumb rushing an opposing quarterback. Tony has accomplished more than most people in Dental School. Besides learning dentistry, he found a wife, learned to make jewelry, learned to be a lefty when necessary and also learned to play football well enough to be started for the first time since he was the only kid with a football in the neighborhood. ' Boy, did I pull that one over? ' I want to patent it for weight loss. ' 166

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Don ' t use 8 round bur for retention ' I don ' t know if I ' ll ever get out. B.A., M.A., California State University Los Angeles, B.S.O.A., Summer Orientation Program. . .. . .- ' I . . .. f- Luther joined D lab in January, evidently not liking his previous student number. He became Jhe infamous 291, constantly being confused with his two predecessors, Ed Reichman and Ron Heneman. If anyone ever got his moneys ' worth out of dental school, it had to be Luther; he went through everything twice. He could be seen with a cigarette in his mouth shaking his head over his lab work until 9:30 every night. He seemed plagued by Murphy ' s Law, ' if anything can possibly go wrong, it will ' , but he took it all in stride and somehow managed to turn everything in on time. He tried everything to get ' hot ' , including setting his hair on fire. His motto was simple - If the margins don ' t fit the tooth, make the tooth fit the margins. A master of stories (plain B.S.) Luther managed to convince Helen to increase his loan so he could vacation in the Bahamas with his family one break. Luther will long be remembered for his friendship and his willingness to help. It was from Luther that I learned how to solder - occlusal perforations, contacts and margins. Undoubtedly Luther will make a fine dentist. Few made the sacrifices he did for dentistry and I hope the rewards will be appropriate. i ! i ' :if ' i g lM ■I ' ] Oh my God, I forgot the vaseline! ' It worked for Richard Pryor

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alifornia State University Fullerton, B.A., Delta Sigma Delta Treasurer. ' Dear, who threw the cream? Ah nuts, no foils. Yes, we will shine your shoes while we ' re at it. 4 Sure, I ' ll have it for you tonight! It ' s Friday afternoon in D lab: Operative. The tension is mounting. Instruments are slipping through sweaty fingers. Gingival walls are chipping out of Class V gold foil preparations. Amalgam is grainy. Margins are sub. Students are breaking down: some crying, some laughing, some staring blindly into space. Then, from one corner of the lab, it begins: a percussion solo on an air syringe. (A percussion solo on an air syringe?) It ' s contageous. Soon the entire lab is lost in violent reverie; stamping their feet, banging their lamps with hatchets and hoes, percussing their air syringes. As the chaos begins to subside, being replaced again by the sweaty palms and the grainy amalgam, Tom turns to me and calmly confesses, I ' ve decided against dentistry . Tom was always deciding against dentistry at the most opportune times-seconds before a bridge was due, moments before a histo exam. But through it all, he maintained what so many of his classmates soon lost: a sense of humor. He had the unique ability to break the monotony and ease the tension that always infiltrated our preclinical lives. At just the right moment, when frustration was at its peak, Tom would pick up his ever-ready air syringe, make some cryptic comment about his future in dentistry, or pull a jewel out of his bottomless pit of puns ( What would you call the University of Michigan ' s Dental School Marching band? . . . Ann Arbor Band ) In the beginning. Tom had some serious doubts about his prognosis for success in dentistry. But, as his performance over the last four years has shown, his doubts were premature and unwarranted. Tom has succeeded, and luckily for us all, he never really decided against dentistry.