I returned to Adelaide as a lecturer and I didn’t enjoy that too much because the School hadn’t changed. So I did a PhD in the Microbiology Department at the University of Adelaide, I think the first in Adelaide for a dental graduate, which gave me a whole new experience of how science worked. I spent five years in the Adelaide Microbiology Department and then went to Harvard for a couple of years.

I was appointed Professor of Dental Medicine and Surgery here in 1968, largely encouraged by ‘Atki’ [Professor Atkinson], who had kept track of my career and often gave me a little push in the right direction. I remained in that position until 1992. With Tony Storey and ‘Atki’, we changed the School’s approach to dental education quite dramatically.

After retiring in 1992, I finished supervising a few PhD students and continued to work one day a week at the Dental Hospital with graduate students. By the way, I don’t like the term postgraduate students. In the United States, they’re known as graduate students and I believe that’s what they are.

David Thomas:[23] I’m a research engineer who joined the technical staff of what was then the Department of Dental Prosthetics part-time in 1978, full-time in 1980. I’ve worked with people like John Harcourt, Clive Dennis[24], Keith Faulkner[25] and been part of the School ever since.

Garry Pearson:[26] I’ve been CEO of the Victorian branch of the Australian Dental Association since 1991. I speak “dental” sufficiently well to get by.

Jeremy Graham:[27] I’m a private dentist and a graduate of Melbourne University, as was my father, my uncle and my grandfather. I’m also one of the forensic odontologists at the Centre for Human Identification.[28] I’m a graduate student at Monash University in medical imaging, in the hope of taking up a teaching career.

Owen Crombie:[29] I’m a 1974 University of Melbourne dental graduate and I’ve been in private practice ever since. At first I was in practice with the late Renton Newbury[30] for a fairly turbulent four or five years in Dandenong, and subsequently I bought my own private practice. Felicity is my daughter.

Gerry Dalitz:[31] I was heading towards a career in physics and mathematics but decided on dentistry instead. I graduated in 1948, and did my Masters degree in Orthodontics in 1955. I’ve been in general practice all my life. I did a Doctorate of Dental Science in 1961 which was in forensic odontology, then had a long period of time when I was the only person doing that sort of thing. Then eventually I got some daggers in my back and some plagiarising overseas. So I retired out of that and eventually retired from dentistry twice.

In latter years I’ve met Jeremy here and because I’ve had so much stuff at home to do with forensic odontology, my wife said I had to find somewhere to put it. So I’m very happily friends with all the forensic odontologists at the University now.

Don Dalley:[32] I graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1947 and was in private practice until 2000 when I gracefully retired.

Dennis Rowler:[33] I was employed by Professor Reade in 1969 and since then I’ve been involved here in histology and teaching and research. I won’t be here for long today.

Witness to the History of Australian Medicine