Research Issue - Harvard School of Dental Medicine

More documents

Recommendations

Info

harvarddentalbulletinWinter 2010–11Volume 70Number 3class of ’44, continuedthrough the Panama Canal. “It was the most exciting existence,”says Hennessy.Back home in Massachusetts, he trained as an orthodontist atTufts University School of Dental Medicine (Harvard did nothave an orthodontics program at the time) and then set up anorthodontics practice in Worcester, Mass. “I spent six years as aNavy dentist, most of it at sea,” Hennessy says. “Then I spent 59years as an orthodontist. When I look around me, I know thatwhat I have is due to what Harvard Dental School did for me.As a Harvard dentist, I was able to meet people, make the rightconnections, and earn a good living. I probably would not havewhat I have now had I not gone to Harvard.” A beloved figurein Westborough, in 2009 Hennessy served as grand marshal forthe town’s Veterans Day celebrations and gave a short speech.After the war, the Marines sent Sehl back to the Navy to finishout his enlistment. He served in Boston for six months, thencompleted his service treating prisoners in Portsmouth, N.H.Originally from Wethersfield, Conn.—the oldest town in thestate—Sehl returned to Wethersfield and set up his own practice,which he maintained until his retirement at age 76. At onepoint, he also served as mayor of the town.Sehl recently turned 90; Hennessy is 93. The bonds forged atHSDM and deepened in war have lasted more othan 70 years. HMembers of the HSDM Class of 1944Joseph J. Annese*Warren G. AttmoreWillard J. Bird*Joseph H. F. Bissell*Kenneth H. Bonenfant*Joseph J. CastanzaNovello Noel Cenci*William A. Chasse*Isadore Cohen*Earl B. Colvin*Roland P. Cullen*Nathan A. Estes, Jr.*Rufus J. Ferioli*Robert D. Firestone*David A. Frank*John E. Goodman*Sirak K. Gregory*Robert N. HennessyHenry D. Howe*Abraham Kaner*Henry Kaplan*James H. Maloney, Jr.*John H. Manhold, Jr.Roy L. McIntosh*Edmund J. McNally, Jr.*Richard D. Morrow*John R. Myles*David J. Oppenheim*William A. Pennine*Harold B. ReillyPhilip T. SehlEverett Shapiro*Frederick L. Smith*Morris Sweet*Harry A. Thompson*Charles H. Tozier*Edward J. Wasilewski*W. Boyd Weston* *deceasedTracking Down a ClassmateThe following is reprinted with permission from theOctober 1987 Bulletin of The Williston NorthamptonSchool. Sam Svasti was a 1936 alumnus of that preparatoryschool, which Bob Hennessy also attended. The twowere friends but after graduation went their separateways. They were quite surprised and pleased to find eachother as first-year classmates in the HSDM Class of 1944.After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941,however, Svasti immediately disappeared from theSchool. Hennessy was called to the HSDM dean’s officeand questioned about Svasti by the FBI. But Hennessyand his classmates never saw Svasti again. Years later,Hennessy learned what had happened to his friendthrough an obituary in the Bulletin of The WillistonNorthampton School. This account fills in the gap andsolves the mystery of Svasti’s disappearance.Mom Chow Yudhisthira SvastiSam Svasti, known in later life as His Serene HighnessPrince Yuthisvast Svasti of Thailand, died in 1986.He was the youngest brother of the late QueenRambhaibarnee, last queen of Thailand under monarchy.Mr. Svasti graduated from Cornell University and wasa student at the Harvard University School of Dentistrywhen World War II began. He joined the FreeThai Movement, and served in China and in Indiabefore secretly going back to Thailand (then calledSiam), working with the Siamese underground forces,and sending information on the Japanese military tothe O.S.S., predecessor of the CIA. Mr. Svasti receivedBulletins and correspondence from Williston duringthe war, addressed to his code name of Lt. S. John.Mr. Svasti married M.R. Phattrattritot Thewakun onMarch 24, 1951. In later years, he served with the ThaiEmbassy in Australia, as Thai Ambassador to Malaysia,and as Consul General in Los Angeles.4
alumni fo cusAlumni FocusMortimer Lorber, dmd ’50, md ’52The recipient of the 2010 HSDM Distinguished Alumni Award,Lorber has had a distinguished career spanning many decades.The plaque that Mortimer Lorberreceived in May 2010 from the HarvardDental Alumni Association reads: “Loyalalumnus, noted scientist, scholar, clinician,and mentor: you continue to influencethe health of humankind throughmajor preclinical course Introduction toClinical Medicine—a series that was presentedfor 25 years and continued evenafter the School of Dentistry was closedand after Lorber retired, when EdwardMopsik, DMD ’67, took over.your lifelong advocacy for oral healthknowledge in medical education.”Lorber served on the admissions committeeof the Georgetown School of DentistryThis is not the first Harvard award thatLorber has received. As an HSDM senior,he earned the Harvard Medical SchoolUndergraduate Assembly Research Awardfor “The Histochemistry of the DentalCementum and Alveolar Bone.” This workMortimer Lorberfor five years and on its education committeefor 25 years. And every year for 25years, he presented an exhibit on dentalinformation for medical students at theeducational sessions of the Association ofAmerican Medical Colleges. “I have beenwas later published in the Anatomical Record in 1951. Lorberalso received a Research Career Development Award from theNational Institute of Dental Research while at the GeorgetownUniversity Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, where he taughtfrom 1959 to 1997 and contributed to the Merck Manual.In fact, Lorber distinguished himself for decades as an educatorat Georgetown who was committed to creating bridgesbetween medicine and dentistry. For 38 years, he lectured inthe first-year physiology course for the dental students, eventuallybecoming course director, and organized a student laboratorysession on human salivary secretion. He created, andfor 30 years directed, a course in oral physiology for dentalgraduate students working on MS degrees in oral surgery, periodontics,and prosthodontics. Following the HSDM philosophythat dentistry is a specialty of medicine, Lorber workedcontinually to bridge the two disciplines, presenting the samelectures to the dental students that he gave to the medical students,despite Georgetown’s curricula being separate for eachschool. He introduced a required series of lectures on clinicaldentistry for second-year medical students as part of theirtold that my exhibits inspired the introduction of several hoursof clinical dental information into the curriculum of a numberof medical schools,” he says. Lorber also spread his knowledgeoutside of academia, lecturing for 10 years on dentallyrelevant aspects of physiology to military dental researchers atthe Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the U.S. NavalDental School.In addition to pursuing his educational mission, Lorber publishedmany research papers, including one in 1968 in the Journalof Investigative Dermatology entitled “Stretching of the Skin InVivo: A Method of Influencing Cell Division and Migration inthe Rat Epidermis.” This research, notes Lorber, “became thebasic science behind tissue expansion for breast reconstructionand perhaps for bone distraction, which has a dental applicationto elongate the congenitally hypoplastic mandible.”A true academic, Lorber is still active in research and writing.Through his dedication to his field and his profession, and hismentoring of future leaders in medicine and dentistry, MortimerLorber has indeed proved to be a distinguished alumnus.H5
Page 4 and 5: harvarddentalbulletinWinter 2010-11
Page 15 and 16: education fo cusEducation FocusEnha
Page 17 and 18: philanthropy fo cusYour gift to est
Page 19 and 20: communit y health fo cusCommunity H
Page 21: global health fo cusGlobal Health F
Page 27: p olicy fo cusBelow: Christine Heni
Page 36: Harvard School of Dental Medicine18

Research Issue - Harvard School of Dental Medicine

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?