Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

private practice in this country, if not in
the world. A printed description of it is
wholly inadequate to give the correct idea
of the beauty, symmetry, appointments,
and equipment contained in this architectural
and professional gem. One must
visit the building, spend not a little time
in inspecting its various departments and
hearing an explanation of the whole and
the several parts from Dr. Fones or one
of his highly specialized attendants. An
expert in dental matters has well said
"Undoubtedly many will say : 'Only a
man of great wealth could indulge in such
an office building.' The odd thing is that
this is no realized air castle of a rich man.
This building, luxurious as it is, has been
constructed and is managed on purely
business principles. Everything is so
systematized, invested capital, cost of
maintenance and office charges so harmonize
that a wonderfully unique, abso-
lutely aseptic, thoroughly professional
dental establishment has been proven to
be practical."
Dr. Fones was president of the Connecticut
State Dental Association, a member
of the Connecticut State Dental Commission,
the Northeastern Dental Asso-
ciation, The American Dental Associa-
tion, and is deeply interested in educa-
tional work, having been a member of the
Bridgeport Board of Education for seven
years and having served as its president in
1922-23. He is a Republican in politics,
a member of the University and the
Brooklawn Country Clubs of Bridgeport.
A summary of Dr. Fones' highest professional—and
civic—services to his community
and country at large would quite
properly embrace these salient facts : He
has established an auxiliary department
in dentistry for the prevention of dental
disease—a new profession for women
known as dental hygienists. At pres-
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
ent there are ten training schools for
the education of dental hygienists, and
twenty-six states have amended their
dental laws to permit these dental hy-
gienists to practice. It was in Bridge-
port in 1914 that, at the instance of Dr.
Fones, there was started the first edu-
cational preventive dental clinics in the
public schools of that city. To-day they
are the popular vogue over this country
and in Europe, the inception of this pro-
gressive movement having been in the
city of Bridgeport.
Dr. Fones married, November 16, 1892,
Elizabeth Harwood, daughter of Henry
Harwood, a banker of Chicago, Illinois.
BASSICK, Edgar W.,
Manufacturer.
It was the good fortune of Edgar W.
Bassick, widely known industrial captain
and man of aflPairs, of Bridgeport, to have
been very happily born. On the paternal
side his immigrant ancestor was a linguist
of note and became fluent in seven dif-
ferent languages, being also a sea trader
to a considerable extent. His grandfather
was a prosperous Maine farmer, who gave
each of his children a good education and
saw them well started in life. His father
was the discoverer of the first gold field in
Australia ;
he became one of the pioneer
gold mine discoverers and owners of famous
gold producing mines in America.
The son, Edgar W. Bassick, whose activities
have ramified over the American
continent, inherited his father's and his
great-grandfather's capacity for big busi-
ness, and he has amplified that inheritance
many-fold. Besides his heavy industrial
investments, he is prominently identified
with banking circles in Bridgeport. Dur-
ing the World War he was one of the
most highly valued men in the service of