Public Health Issue - Harvard School of Dental Medicine

David Farrell, DMD51One can’t tell the story of a life in a thousand words.A space that small can’t take the measure of a manor encompass the scope of his accomplishments,his doubts, his triumphs, his loss. By anyone’smeasure, however, David Farrell, DMD51, had a very full life.At age 90, he remembered his service in World War II as ifit were yesterday. He enjoyed a long career in academia andprivate practice. “My greatest accomplishment, though,” hesaid, “was marrying Dorothy nearly 64 years ago, followed byfour magnificent children. We are very proud and very gratefulfor our family.”Farrell and Dorothy (“Dotty”) met in dancing schoolwhen they were in ninth grade. They graduated from WatertownHigh School in the same class, and except for the period whenhe was overseas in military service during the Second WorldWar, they were inseparable. They married in 1949 after having“courted” for 10 years. Four children and eight grandchildrenlater, they were still deeply devoted to each other.After graduating from high school, Farrell attendedTufts University for a year. He transferred to Harvard College,where he pursued premedical studies, commuting to school bystreetcar from his family home in Watertown. As a commuterand public-school graduate, he always felt a certain distancebetween himself and the private-school boys who lived oncampus. He was, however, a stellar athlete, playing hockey,baseball, and football and excelling and lettering in each. Aserious injury in a hockey game at West Point, in which he waselbowed in the head by a “goon defenseman,” ended his athleticcareer disappointingly.Farrell’s future was decided early on. “When I wasyoung, my mother designated me to be a dentist,” he says. Andthat was that. Before he could finish at Harvard, much lessenter dental school, World War II intervened and Farrell wentinto military service.wartimeFarrell was studying in his room at home in Watertown whenhe heard the news about Pearl Harbor. “We knew from thatminute on that things would change,” he remembered. Manyof his Harvard classmates enlisted; Farrell himself entered theArmy Air Corps.That was around January 5, 1942. He waited for a fullyear to be called up, however. “There were no planes, no fields,no instructors for the thousands who had signed up,” he said.“In February 1943, I was finally calledup with multiple classmates, and wewent to Biloxi, Mississippi, for basictraining.” Eventually, in Nashville,Tennessee, he was classified as a pilotand spent two months of primarytraining in flight school in Jackson,Tennessee, at a brand-new facility.“Training facilities were springing upall over the Southeast,” he noted.Those students who succeededadvanced to higher-performingaircraft. Arriving at Newport, Arkansas,for basic flight training, his group wasJan ReissDavid and Dorothy Farrell at their home inChatham, Massachusetts, in September 2012.4 winter 2012–13 • harvard dental bulletin