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

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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.

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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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A. 3 j0Ktk fl Wi;9k W H s J ( Jh. : H i % i ' Kdl ll ;e4irfa2 ::!! .fl Los AngeleSi Eafifornia .■■ | U.C.L.A. A.B. Psychology, Vice Pre sident Alpha Omega Fraternity, Instructor Dental Morphology. .. M ' s sHU yi (2. f 1 Marty Feldman Roberts. ' Yes, I missed you Joel. What do you mean Academic Affairs doesn ' t know who I am? Of course, I wax off every night. When Marty walked into dental school he had a very distinct advantage. It would have to be called hereditary odontopsycosis or congenital manifest dentistry. It was in the stars for Marty to enter our honored profession. It wasn ' t enough for his father, brother and countless other blood relatives to be dentists but he had to marry the daughter of a dentist. Marty knew more about teeth the first day of class than a lot of us knew after three trimesters. He did prove to be up to the challenge of carrying o n with some of the best performances of D lab . While the rest of the lab would be polishing their castings due the next morning, Marty would be marginating or waxing up or something else about twelve steps behind the rest of us. At these most trying times for the average dental student, Marty would say, I ' m not worried and go on playing his game of chess or cribbage. The sad part about it was the way every project would turn out great. All he really needed was a mobile polishing unit for the last minute dash down the hall. Marty was always there to help anyone who may need it. He has always wanted to teach and I ' m sure he ' ll be very good at that too. Best of luck to Marty and Andrea in the future.