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

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mirSo In the eighty years since its foundation the College has had eight deans, Dr. Chapin A. Harris being the first and Dr. William G. Foster the present incumbent. The longest term in the office was served by Dr. M. YVhilldin Foster, from 1894 to 1914. Dr. Foster ' s predecessor was Dr. Richard Bayley Winder, who served from 1882 until his death in 1894. Few men. perhaps, have brought maturer judgment Lo the office or taken a broader view of the profession with its possibili- ties and its needs than Dr. Winder. He was instrumental, among many other achievements, in organizing the National Association of Dental Faculties, which has been the means of establishing at least some degree of uniformity in dental instruction in all colleges. It was Dr. Winder also who was the means of the Census Bureau taking dentistry out of the list of trades a nd placing it among the professions. Dr. M. Whilldin Foster, who succeeded Dr. Winder, brought long experience and large reputation as a practitioner, as well as mature judgment, to the office of Dean. He served faithful!}- and successfully until very near the end of a long and useful life, when he resigned and was succeeded by his son, Dr. William G. Foster, the present Dean, whose qualities and qualifications fit him eminently for the office, and who is the first incumbent to give his entire time to its duties. One of the only two strictly dental fraternities — Psi Omega — was organized in this school in 1892. and has grown in numbers and importance until its chapters and its members are found in ever} - section of the country and are interested in ever}- activity pertaining to dentistry. One of its early members and its long-time head. Dr. H. E. Friesell. is the present President-elect of the -National Dental Association. The College for many years occupied the building at the southeast corner of Eutaw and Franklin streets, but in 1914 purchased and occupied its present building at 851 Xorth Howard street, where its equip- ment and facilities are greatly improved. This change to a more comfortable home reminds us of one of the very few bits of humor for which we can find place within the limits of this record. The College has felt justified always in seeking such legitimate advantage as priority should give, and with this in view has always used as its advertising slogan The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery — the oldest and for many years the only Dental College in the world. ' On a very cold day in the winter of 1902-3. when the old-fashioned stoves that stood out in the centre were scarcely equal to the task of furnishing 70 degrees for so spacious and draughty a room as the infirmary. Tizenlv-four

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MIRpQ department of surgery shall be intrusted to be educated men and well instructed in its theoretical and practical principles. The first commencement was held on March 9. 1841. at which diplomas were awarded to two successful candidates, Robert Arthur and R. Covington Mackall. One of these diplomas and a fac-simile of the other are now the property of this College and preserved in its archives. There were three men graduated in the second class in 1842. One of these was Dr. W. W. H. Thackston of Virginia. Your historian cannot forego the pleasure of recording here his personal acquaintance with Dr. Thackston, a man of courtly manner, of delightful personality and large attainments, whom to know was a privilege and an inspiration. The pleasure of the acquaintance was twofold : First, it constituted a direct connecting link with the beginnings of dentistry as a profession, and second, it gave an insight into the character and quality of the men who became its very foundation, guaranteeing from the beginning the success which, notwithstanding many vicissitudes, has ultimately come to it. The earlier lectures were delivered in a small room, but in 1846 the College was established in a building on Lexington street near Calvert, where the first dental infirmary also was established. The first demonstrator of prosthetic den- tistry was employed in 1843 and the first demonstrator of operative dentistry in 1846. Classes were small in the early days, but showed a steady increase from year to year, and the students were attracted from an ever-widening territory. In 1843 there were six students from four States ; in 1846, with eleven students, seven States, Canada and England were represented, this being the first year that a diploma was granted to an applicant outside of the United States. In the inter- vening years no section of our country, and few, if any, civilized countries, are unrepresented in the long list of graduates, which numbers some three thousand two hundred (3200). From these ranks have gone men who have become leaders in every branch of the profession and prominent in many fields of activity outside of dentistry. From here have gone organizers, research workers, editors, writers, teachers, inventors and men of genius in every branch of operative and prosthetic work. And they have radiated, as it were, to every corner of the world and ren- dered service to men and women in every walk and every station of life — to crowned heads and cooks — to Queen Anne and to Mary Anne. Limited space forbids extended discussion of individuals and their achieve- ments. T entv-lhree

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MIRgQfe I T. Kennedy of Massachusetts crystallized the sentiment of the entire student body when he rubbed his hands together and exclaimed in paraphrase of the long- used slogan. The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery — the oldest and for many vears the coldest Dental College in the world ! Those days happily are passed, but the humorous paraphrase did duty and maybe helped to keep the fires burning brighter — who knows — as long as the school remained in the old building. When the United States engaged in the late war many graduates of this school entered the service in the dental dpartment of the army, and many of the students here were members of the Student Army Training Corps. Dr. B. Lucien Brun, B. C. D. S. 1905, went abroad with the Johns Hopkins unit at the very beginning of the participation of the United States in hostilities, and was the first American dentist in the field. He was one of only two dentists in the active service abroad to rise to the rank of Major — the reward of sheer merit — an honor alike ! o his College and to his country. It is a matter of great pride, too, to every lover of this Mother of Dental Colleges that two of her graduates, Dr. John R. Ames, 1905. and Dr. Frank L. K. Laflamme, 1907, who had been connected with the dental service of the regular army for many years, each rose rapidly after our entrance into the war from the rank of Lieutenant to that of Lieutenant-Colonel, and were two of the most im- portant men on the staff of Colonel Logan, who became the head of the entire department, rendering him great assistance in the huge task of organizing the large and efficient dental corps that performed such faithful service to the men in camp •and in the field, at home and abroad. Time and space do not suffice to speak of many men, events and achievements that are of great interest and importance, but this narrative cannot properly be closed without recording two recent occurrences. In the autumn of 1918 Prof. William B. Finney, after more than thirty years in the Chair of Prosthetic Dentistry, resigned his professorship and severed his active connection with the school. Thus passed from the field a man of wide influence, of mature judgment and unbounded zeal and energy, and one whose interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of the College and of the students, individually and collectively, were amongst the very chiefest of his concerns. Perhaps no other single influence was so potent in the purchase, adaptation and equipment of the present home of the College. From the inception to the completion of the transaction it was his obsession — so much so that the new prop- Trventp-five