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School of Dentistry honors legends

By Colleen Newvine
News Service

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

The School of Dentistry hosted a celebration Sept. 4 to unveil its Hall of Honor, paying tribute to legends of the school.

Donald Kerr was one of 18 former faculty members inducted in the first class of School of Dentistry’s new Hall of Honor Sept. 4, and his family members attended an unveiling ceremony honoring the inductees. Family members who participated in the festivities, which included presenting families with duplicate versions of the plaques now mounted at Dentistry, were son Richard Kerr, grandson Todd Kerr, son Alec Kerr and daughter Sondra Kerr Herold. (Photo by Paul Jaronski, U-M Photo Services)

The names of the 18 inductees, a head-and-shoulder image of each person, and a short narrative describing his or her achievements are on plaques on a wall outside the Continuing Dental Education office in the Kellogg Building.

Among those inducted were deans, a professor who persuaded leaders in many communities to add fluoride to their water supplies, a pioneer in pediatric dentistry, a dental investigator who conducted long-term studies on the effectiveness of various periodontal treatment procedures, and the first director of the school’s dental hygiene program.

The inductees, all deceased, include:

• Dr. Russell Bunting

• Dr. Cyrenus Darling

• Dr. Dominic Dziewiatkowski

• Dr. Kenneth Easlick

• Dr. Dorothy Hard

• Dr. Nelville Hoff

• Dr. Philip Jay

• Dr. Paul Jeserich

• Dr. Donald Kerr

• Dr. Percival Lowery

• Dr. Chalmers Lyons

• Dr. William Mann

• Dr. Floyd Ostrander

• Dr. Floyd Peyton

• Dr. Sigurd Ramfjord

• Dr. Ralph Sommer

• Dr. Jonathan Taft

• Dr. Marcus Ward

A brief description of the achievements of each individual is available on Dentistry’s Web site, http://www.dent.umich.edu .

A committee of the school’s Alumni Society Board of Governors reviewed and approved a list of names at a spring meeting and submitted the names to the dean. Board of Governors Chair Dr. Jay Werschky said, “The committee that reviewed the names established a high threshold that future inductees will have to meet in order to become a part of this highly select group of individuals.”