ALUMNI // FOUNDATION OF SUCCESS
Foundation of Success This summer, I had the opportunity to visit with Dr. William E. Brown, founding dean of the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry, or as everyone called him, Bill Brown, and ask him what it was like starting a new dental school. Bill lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with his dog, Faye, and turned 96 this past August. During our conversation, he sounded like, and was as sharp as, the dean who hired me 42 years ago. Since he retired in 1987, with less than one-third of OU dental and dental hygiene graduates ever knowing him, I suggested to Dean Cohlmia that we should do a story on Dean Brown and his story about founding the college.
Before the OU College of Dentistry
Dean Brown grew up in Benton Harbor, Michigan, where his father was a practicing dentist. In 1945, Bill earned his doctor of dental surgery degree from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. Briefly after, he joined his father in his dental practice, eventually returning to the University of Michigan School of Dentistry for specialty training in pediatric dentistry. After completing his specialty training, he practiced pediatric dentistry in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for 15 years and served on the faculty in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry. He attained the rank of full professor in 1961 and transitioned to a full-time faculty member in 1962. He also served as associate dean for graduate and post-graduate dentistry. Concurrent with his leadership role in dental education, he became very involved in organized dentistry and served as president of the Michigan Dental Association, the American Society of Dentistry for Children and the American Academy of Pedodontics.
The Move to Oklahoma
In 1969, the Oklahoma Legislature approved a bill to establish a dental school in Oklahoma. At the 1968 American Dental Association meeting, Dr. Larson Keso, chair of the search committee (currently a part-time faculty member in the OU Department of Orthodontics), and several committee members met with several dean candidates, including Dr. Bill Brown. Following that meeting, Dr. Brown was one of four candidates invited to tour the campus in Oklahoma City. Bill said the excitement of starting a new school and the earmarked financial support from the HERO Bond program for a new building were critical in his decision to apply for deanship. After two more trips to Oklahoma, meeting with the search committee members and university leadership, he was named dean in 1969 by then OU president J. Herbert Holloman. At the March 17, 1969, meeting, the regents of the University of Oklahoma announced Brown’s appointment, effective Aug. 1, 1969. There were many challenges in starting the new school, especially with the unexpected death of his wife a week before they were to
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move. With his wife suddenly gone, Bill came to Oklahoma alone with the task of developing a curriculum and designing a new dental facility. In the summer of 1969, Bill moved to Oklahoma City and settled into the first home of the OU College of Dentistry, a house on NE 14th Street. During the next couple of years, plans progressed for establishing a dental hygiene and dental program.
The College of Dentistry Begins to Take Shape
The Oklahoma dental program was a great challenge starting from scratch but had great potential. Because there was no history to follow, there were no traditions to contend with or expectations to meet; it was essentially a blank canvas. This allowed for a good deal of creative freedom. The mission of the college established under Dean Brown’s tenure was to educate and train dentists to provide for the clinical needs of Oklahomans, and that mission has not changed since the school was founded. Bill had some serious work to do before the first class could convene, including designing a curriculum, articulating the architectural specifications for new buildings and finding a temporary facility for the clinical program until permanent facilities could be completed. But one of his biggest trials was hiring quality faculty who would educate students to provide high-quality clinical care in a wide range of disciplines. At that time in Oklahoma, the number of dental specialists was few, and this was especially true in rural areas. Also, many prospective faculty candidates knew nothing about Oklahoma, except for the tornados (he tried not to recruit in the spring). Although it posed as a challenge, Bill was very successful in hiring a high-quality faculty. The first faculty member hired was Albert F. Staples, a former associate professor of oral surgery at Baylor University College of Dentistry. Other prominent dental faculty included Drs. Herbert Shillingburg, Earl Collard, Don Welk, Dick Mathewson, Ram Nanda, Dean Johnson, Richard Reynolds, Tom Glass, Frank Miranda, Stewart Shaprio, Manville Duncanson and Don L. Whisett. Many of them were young and had Michigan ties because of Dr. Brown’s Michigan affiliation. In fact, OU at times was referred to as Michigan South. This group of founding faculty had a profound impact on dental education and published textbooks on fixed prosthodontics, removable prosthodontics and pediatric dentistry that were used throughout the world. But one thing they all had in common was taking on the challenge of creating a new clinical model, in which they succeeded. Brown quickly spelled out his vision for an OU dental education, which included two nontraditional approaches. One, students would be exposed to patients in their first year of school to effectively marry scientific education with the real world instead of the traditional third year. Secondly, he wanted a clinical curriculum to put OU on the map, a model other schools later followed. The first program to be initiated was the two-year Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene program. The dental hygiene program took its first class in 1972 and was composed of 16 students. The
Th e U n i v e r s i t y o f O k l a h o m a- C o l l e g e o f D e n t i s t r y / 2 019 M a g a z i n e
