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

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What ' s a start check? ' We in E lab knew Gary would do well at SC when we observed him polishining his manikin head just before operative finals. Gary applied himself very diligently in those preclinical years and acquitted himself quite admirably. At times I considered it my own special curse from above that my preps and projects had to be graded adjacent to his. There were some advantages to having a hot dog for a lab partner . . . once when my lamp bulb burned out during operative finals I found I could get by quite nicely in the glow reflected from the finish of his class V foil. Gary also found time to become a mean chess player, a pin ball protagonist and an active participant In that internecine series of struggles which came to be know (by the custodial staff at least) as the great E lab Rubber Band Wars. Four years have gone by quickly, it seems. As we leave SC I will set forth with unequivocally pleasant memories of a lengthy and uncompromisingly honest individual. Gee, I never dreamed Team would be this much fun. 178

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MSTo East Los Angeles College, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Cal,;; , State Los Angeles, B.S. Zoology. ' ? Ya, my setup Is clean. iide from the typical feats of wonder and mutual torture 3 partners inflict on one another, Bruce was a good lighbor during the years of preclinical incarceration. ;ademically he excelled and I ' ll never cease to be sgusted by his organized notes and disciplined study ibits! His early attempts at manual dexterity netted the pical number of DO ' s, yet he persevered. ju could always depend of Bruce. His seminar attendance as always punctual, to the point of setting your watch, if )u wanted it to run 25 min. late! His chess a bility was conquerable, much to my continual frustration. And, later, 5 was always ready for pin ball. side from his role as Lab E ' s chess champion, perhaps his lain claim to fame was his position as dental school Tibalmer. Few persons enjoyed lunches more than Bruce I his 4th floor lab! And how many persons make a hobby I disecting steel hipjoints with band saws? This, indeed, as a remarkable way to supplement his hard working ife ' s income! (Come to think of it, I haven ' t seen her itely). 1 all sincerity, Bruce worked hard and performed well, fhile making my dental school experience more bearable (ith his positive attitude and friendship. His character is an sset to the profession, I know he ' ll succeed! No, I ' m not going with anybody on the Fourth Floor. 1

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4! Jerry would like to tell you to stick it up your Santa Monica City College A. A., Calif. State University Northridge B.A. I ' m tired of this crap, let ' s go have a smoke. .. ' fflaiSiMSySfflSSiiffi: . ;rap, another double meat whopper th cheese and I hope I can keep down. Jerry Szkiarek was not what you would call your every day All-American, run-of-the-mill dental student. By way of Poland, Jerry settled in California in 1969. (There is no truth to those ugly rumors that Jerry is a communist spy.) After receiving his B.S. from Cal St. Northridge in five years without the benefit of knowing any English, Jerry craved for still a greater challenge. In 1974, contemplating a career either as a Polish cosmonaut or an American dentist, he chose to pursue the latter at USC. (And the Conquest goes on!) Upon entering SC, Jerry was placed in Lab E and was assigned an Hawaiian partner. Also in the same corner of the lab sat another European. Mike Tasic, a Yugoslavian. Despite these handicaps, Jerry excelled in all facets of preclinical dentistry. Jerry and Mike became inseparable friends, maybe because no one else understood them. They would always take two hour smoke breaks before getting started on a 21 2 hour operative or morphology carving exam. They could be heard muttering to themselves on these breaks about returning to Russia, PICKA Tl MATERINAI Clinical work was no different, as Jerry took two semesters off mastering the art of pinball-otomy, before scheduling his first patient. He amazingly completed his junior clinics in one month of the last trimester as a junior, getting no less than 4.0 ' s. The last I heard he had amassed 1800 pts. in his last trimester alone but was still a hundred pts. short in Perio. Jerry plans to practice in L.A. and return to SC as a part-time instructor in either Operative or pinball. 179