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

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r J. Ben Robinson, D.D.S., F.A.C.D. Dean of the School of Dentistry Eleven

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Do Your Duty You of the 1933 Class have chosen deliberately a profession and ha e com- pleted satisfactorily the preparation which equips you to minister to the health needs of society. This election carries with it duties which you should recognize and which it is }-our responsibility to discharge acceptably to those whom you will ser -e. Those among you, if there be such, who lack this ' ision of professional and social responsibility will find yourselves out of harmony with ideals consonant with professional station and attainment. Under these circumstances you will, no doubt, regard the time spent in preparation as a terminable episode of interest only as a hurdle that, when successfully cleared, guarantees a favorable oppor- tunity for money getting. You will find that the incentive for mental training ends, desire for scientific improvement ceases, while the ser ' ices you will render will be vitiated by empirical tendencies. In view of past experience we conclude this picture is not of you. We believe you will realize that your commencement is the rededication of yourselves to laudable endeavor, a matriculation in the school of experience which is more exacting, more important and more vital than what you have known. Most failures in dental practice can set the date of begin- ning decline at the time of beginning practice. Because one does not exercise the powers essential to intellectual, professional, and social progress there is atrophy, shrinkage, deterioration rather than de elopment, expansion and improvement. It is a pity for one to dwindle down into nothing but crude material with which to fill some vocation. Born a man, died a grocer, was the epitaph which a certain Frenchman left as the mournful lament of a life that had failed. One must search out his duty, must plan intelligentl)- to meet it in the most efficient manner, and then devote every ounce of effort and determination to its attainment. Inten- tion is what one proposes to do, ambition is what one covets to do, sentiment is what one is pleased to do, but duty is what one must do. Your future success and happiness depend on honesty of purpose, loyalty to a cause and to society, systematic effort to develop skill in service, intelligent application of the powers of the mind to the problems which daily present themselves, and diligence in the performance of the task in hand — all under the stimulating drive of action moti- vated by a worthy idealism. It is our belief and fond hope that none of the 1933 Class will waver in purpose or permit himself, either through desire for unworthy gain or by surrender to unfavorable circumstances, to be thrown into the category of ignoble failure. Your achievement will be in proportion to the ideals which dominate you, the purpose which directs you and the zeal which actuates you. J. Ben Robinson, Dean Ten

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Albert C. Ritchie, A.B., LL.B., LL.D. Governor of Maryland Twelve