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 Charles S. Willis, DDS ’74, of Durham, North Carolina was
unanimously selected to receive the Distinguished Service
Award in
recognition
of his many years of exceptional service to the UNC School of Dentistry
and the dental profession. Special notice was paid to Willis’ significant
efforts on behalf of the Dental Alumni Association, which he served
as a member of its board of directors and, finally, as president
in 2001.
Dr. Willis’s record of service to both the UNC School of Dentistry
and the dental profession is a long and distinguished one that began
during his years as a dental student. Stints as secretary/treasurer
of his UNC dental class and chairman of the Student Admission Committee
soon gave way to greater leadership roles in the profession, including
presidencies of the Durham-Orange Dental Society, the Third District
Dental Society, and the Academy of General Dentistry. A member of
a dozen professional dental organizations, Dr. Willis has served
on countless committees and task forces during is thirty years of
private practice.
Dr. Ted Roberson, president of the Dental Alumni Association, praises
Dr. Willis: “Charles is highly regarded for his astute ideas
and willingness to participate in discussions about the betterment
of the dental profession. His involvement in organized dentistry
has not been for self-recognition, but rather because of his…desire
to make this profession the best it can be.”
 John W. Stamm,
DMD, professor and dean emeritus of the UNC School of Dentistry,
is the recipient of the John C. Brauer Award for his lifetime of
service to the dental profession and the UNC School of Dentistry.
In 1984, Stamm moved his family to Chapel Hill from Montreal to
join the faculty of the School as the associate dean for research.
In
1989, he was appointed the fifth dean in the School’s history,
a position he held until December 2004.
During his tenure, Stamm successfully led the School through two
accreditation processes and two multi-million dollar capital campaigns
while ushering the School’s clinics, labs, classrooms and offices
into the information age. The fifteen years of his tenure saw the
School’s endowment increase 865% through private contributions,
and oversaw renovations to the Old Dental building and the planning
and construction of Tarrson Hall, the School’s state-of-the-art
clinic facility.
“
John Stamm was absolutely the right man at the right time when he
became dean,” say DAA board member Danny Harris, DDS ’74. “Relations
between dentists and the School were at a low point and he came
in with the express purpose of improving those relations. He did
a great
job and is held in the highest respect by dentists in North Carolina.”
To further honor the achievements of Dr. Stamm, the Dental Foundation
of North Carolina has endowed the John W. Stamm Professorship,
to which the Dental Alumni Association recently donated a lead
gift
of $50,000.
 Karl Leinfelder, DDS, MS, a member
of the UNC School of Dentistry’s Operative Dentistry faculty from 1970 to 1983,
is the recipient of the Dental Alumni Association’s Honorary
Lifetime Membership Award. Dr. Leinfelder is recognized for his efforts
to establish the Clinical Research Program at UNC, a program that
came to be recognized as one of the best in the world. Says current
chair of the Operative Department, Dr. Ed Swift: “His early
efforts to secure research grants and his ability to effectively
publish the findings resulted in significant benefits for both
the scientific and practice communities. The impact was substantial,
not only for the School of Dentistry, but also for the emerging
credibility
of biomaterials testing throughout the country.”
Dr. Leinfelder left the School to accept a chairmanship at the
University of Alabama School of Dentistry where he guided the biomaterials
teaching
and research efforts until his retirement in 1994. During his tenure
at both UNC and the University of Alabama, Leinfelder received
numerous awards, including the Academy of Operative Dentistry’s Hollenback
Memorial Prize and the American Dental Association’s Norton
M. Ross Award for excellence in clinical research. Today, Dr. Leinfelder
resides in Chapel Hill and remains active in the profession through
his dental consulting company, his service as an adjunct faculty
member at UNC and as a sought-after continuing education lecturer.
The
2004 awards will be presented at the School of Dentistry’s
Best of Dentistry awards dinner on April 15, 2005. For more details
on the dinner or the awards, please contact the Dental Alumni Association
at 919-966-4563 or by email at alumni@dentistry.unc.edu.
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