Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry 110th Commencement
Arthur Dugoni
2004
unpublished
U ,·versity of the Pacific, School of Dentistry is one of the premier dental chools in the nation and has senred the Bay Area community for one undred and eight years. The years surrounding the turn of the twentieth century were packed with potential. Momentous experiments heralded both the fulfillment of dreams and the beginning of creations that promised to forever change the world around them. In 1895, for example, Marconi introduced the wireless telegraph, ushering in a new age of
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... ion. That same year, Roentgen discovered X-rays; and a scant eight years later, Orville Wright took the first airplane ride. Something momentous was also about to take flight in San Francisco. A local war hero named Dr. Charles Boxton came home to nurture his dream of founding a high quality private dental school. Founded in 1896 as the College of Physicians and Surgeons (known as P&S), the school's curriculum originally included programs in dentistry, medicine, and pharmacy. The college announced to its Northern California public and to the world, "It will, at all times, be the purpose of this school to elevate the profession through its students." Dr. Boxton presided as the first dean ofP&S and served briefly as mayor of San Francisco. In 1918, during Dr. Boxton's tenure as dean, the college focused its educational program solely on dentistry. The school grew and developed right along with its city, its students, and the profession. In the one hundred and eight years since Dr. Boxton drove his horse and buggy down a cobblestoned Market Street, of course, much has changed in the city. Highrise buildings now punctuate the skyline, and world-famous bridges span across our waters. In fact, if the first dean were to visit us today, he would not recognize the advanced equipment, the high-tech instruments, or the gleaming state-of-the-art facility; and he certainly would have a hard time parking that buggy on Sacramento or Webster Streets. The one thing Dr. Bo:xton would not be surprised to see is how his dental school has prospered. The original P&S campus, located at Fourth and Howard Streets near the present day Moscone Center, was completely destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire. As a result, the campus moved to its Fourteenth Street location in the heart of the .Mission District, where it operated from 1906 until1967. In 1962, the College of Physicians and Surgeons amalgamated with the University of the Pacific. A new facility for the new University of the Pacific, School of Dentistry, was constructed in 1967 on the comer of Sacramento and Webster Streets in San Francisco, where the school stands today. It was the first complete replacement of a dental school facility to be dedicated in the United States using federal aid-to-education funds. Wtth a remarkable capacity for innovation and adaptation, the University of the Pacific, School of Dentistry has thrived through earthquakes and wars, legislation and depression, to forge and maintain its longstanding reputation for producing excellence in scientific and clinical training. At the same time, the school has built a parallel reputation for encouraging diversity, accessibility, and opportunity, which has formed a strong sense of community. This translates to a special concern for people which prevails among students, faculty, alumni, and supporters. Today, both of these traditions of excelleuce and of caring combines to form Pacific's guiding philosophy of humanism. A model of humanistic education that is second to none! "Where professors teach, faculty care, and students learn. "Every piece of marble has a statue in it waiting to he released by someone of sufficient skills to chip away the unnecessary parts. Just as a sculptor is to marble, so is education to the soul. It releases it For only the educated are free. You cannot create a statue by smashing the marble with a hammer, and you cannot by force of arms release the spirit of the soul (of a student)." -Confucius We are proud of the technical and scientific progress we have achieved at the School of Dentistry, but we are just as proud of the respect for people maintained at every level. The success nurtured and cultivated by the School of Dentistry is a result not only of fine minds hut also of fine attitudes. These attitudes are captured in two words---<:aring and service. Our mission simply is to "build people-along the way, we make them doctors who serve the public." Today, under the direction of Dr. Arthur A. Dugoni, dean and P&S alumnus, the School of Dentistry is a leader among deutal schools, in curticulum, clinical excellence, and technology. Students learn through the "humanistic" model of education in a technologically-advanced setting. Dean Dugoni has successfully guided the remodeling of both the facilities and the curriculum and is leading the school into the tweuty-first century dedicated to excelleuce. In addition to Pacific's strong educational reputation, its dental clinics handle over 200,000 patient visits per year and offer comprehensive dental care in a variety of specialties including pediatric care, orthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, periodontics, endodontics, pathology and medicine, prosthodontics, and dental implants.
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