Books

Dr Donna Rumberger graduated from New York University College of Dentistry in 1980 and has practiced dentistry in Manhattan ever since. Even before her graduation, she was active in organized dentistry, always viewing it as a conduit for helping other people. Working with the American Association of Women Dentists, she was cofounder of the Smiles for Success Foundation, a program started in New York City that helps women advance from welfare into the workforce with restored, healthy smiles. That program now has expanded to 14 other cities. Working with organized dentistry in New York City, she has been instrumental in initiating and running the Skate Safe program, which provides mouthguards and oral home care education for inner city children in Harlem. In addition, she has worked with the dentistry merit badge program for the Boy Scouts of America Jamborees, helped coalesce women's dental organizations in New York City, and led her dental society to collaborate with Columbia University in a program to improve access to dental care. As further evidence of her ability to get things done, she also has served as president of the American Association of Women Dentists, the Midtown Dental Society, and the New York County Dental Society-one of the largest dental societies in the country.

Since 1966, Dr Jerry Lowney has practiced orthodontics in Norwich, Connecticut, where he has been active in both community and professional organizations, including the University of Connecticut Board of Trustees and the Board of Governors for Higher Education. Since his first volunteer trip to Haiti in the mid-1980s, during which he provided dental services for the poor, he has returned to that country at least three times each year. Over time the nature of his activities has changed. Through grant writing, personal influence, liaison with a religious order, a huge investment of time, successful fundraising, the seizing of every opportunity, and the expenditure of large amounts of his own money, he has created a multimillion-dollar general health facility in one of the poorest areas in Haiti. Besides dental treatment, the scope of his activities has ranged from creating centers for high-risk pregnancy and malnutrition to the hiring of physicians, the training of local nurse practitioners, and an Adopt-a-Family program run by his wife, Virginia. His actions have been influenced by Virginia's caring attitudes and by his conviction that much is expected from those who have received life's bounties.

Dr Camille B. Capdeboscq taught operative dentistry at Louisiana State University School of Dentistry from 1972 until his retirement in 1996. Before that, he had practiced for 9 years, partly in Louisiana's bayou country. With a reputation for clinical excellence, he became a legendary figure at LSU for his humility, his generosity of spirit, and his humanitarian dedication to students. Despite his demand for the highest of standards, and his toughness in grading, his students nonetheless loved and revered him for his ability to inspire confidence, stimulate learning, and instill a sense of dignity at each encounter. Dr Capdeboscq also inspired his colleagues to look at their own character and values.

Dr Brent Benkelman has practiced oral surgery in Manhattan, Kansas, since 1971. Having grown up in a tiny farming town in western Kansas, he opted for the lifestyle of a smaller community after graduating from the University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Dentistry in 1966 and completing his training

Jeanne Craig Sinkford graduated from Howard University College of Dentistry in 1958 and there began a career in academic dentistry as a clinical instructor. Six years later, armed with specialty training in prosthodontics and a master's degree and PhD in physiology from Northwestern University, Dr Sinkford returned to Howard expecting to develop a research program and continue her clinical teaching. Instead, she was immediately made head of the Department of Prosthodontics and in 11 more years became Howard's dean of dentistry. After 16 years as dean, Dr Sinkford retired and took a position at the American Dental Education Association charged with developing and implementing policy on issues involving gender and minorities in dentistry. In addition to her reputation for her principled approach to getting things done, Dr Sinkford is widely recognized for her dedicated sincerity, her warmth, her concern for others, and her reasoned reasonableness.

Dr Jack Whittaker grew up in Bowling Green, Ohio, in a family atmosphere that was dominated by sports and nurtured by sportsmanship. Planning on dentistry since high school, Jack graduated from The Ohio State University dental school and in 1970 opened a general dentistry practice in Bowling Green, where he now practices pediatric dentistry. From the earliest days of his practice, Jack has treated low-reimbursement Medicaid patients. Eventually realizing that most of his colleagues were not doing likewise, he became concerned that children who needed care were not getting it. As a result, he began a long process to effect change. Within the profession, he campaigned to encourage both generalists and specialists to accept Medicaid patients. Simultaneously, he forged a successful relationship with an influential elected official in state government that brought about a significant increase in the rate of Medicaid reimbursement to dentists. Apart from his practice, Jack has expressed his concern for children through coaching and off-the-field leadership in baseball, football, and ice hockey.

In the mid-1940s at Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery, Dr Irwin Mandel began a pioneering career in research on salivary chemistry in health and disease. It brought him an international reputation, an array of awards, and honorary degrees from prestigious universities. In the first half of his 50-year tenure at Columbia, he shared his commitment to research with the operation of a half-time private practice in Manhattan. Then, after giving up his practice, he became a full-time faculty member at Columbia as division head of preventive dentistry and community health, and concluded his service as associate dean for research. Dr Mandel has become recognized by his peers at Columbia and by the academic community across the United States as a symbol of integrity, both in his research and as a person. Shaped in childhood by a culture of caring in a community of Jewish immigrants to which his father was dedicated, he became well-known for his thoughtful mentoring of rising scientists. Additionally, for much of his life, he was a committed social activist.

For Minnesota dentists with long memories, Dr Jack Echternacht is a legendary figure. He graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry in 1943. Except for a 3-year enlistment in the Navy during World War II, he has made his home and his professional life in Brainerd, on the edge of Minnesota's lake country. A few years after he started his general practice, reports began to appear about the striking reduction of dental caries in children's teeth when fluoride was placed in the drinking water. Excited by these prospects for better oral health, Dr Echternacht led a Chamber of Commerce initiative in 1954 to introduce fluoride into Brainerd's water supply. What seemed at first an easy victory turned into a 30-year struggle. Dr Echternacht's determination, persistence, and leadership during this fight for fluoridation led to his selection as a moral model in dentistry.

For 44 years Dr Hugo A. Owens was a distinguished practitioner and community leader in Portsmouth and Chesapeake, Virginia, and also served for a time as president of the National Dental Association. Besides his proclivity for dentistry, he was driven by two other passions: politics and civil rights. In 1970 he was one of the first African Americans ever elected to the Chesapeake City Council. He was reelected for the next term and appointed vice mayor, a position he held for 8 years. His political successes were preceded by his activities as a civil rights leader, which began in 1950 and lasted through the 1960s. In a remarkable series of negotiations and litigations, Dr Owens was the prime mover in the desegregation of the city of Portsmouth. In all three careers, Dr Owens used dentistry as a home base for the expression of his activist philosophy of providing help for others when they were unable to help themselves.