Alumni recognized for leadership,
support
College of Dental
MedicineMUSC College of Dental Medicine’s Dental Alumni Association recognized four individuals for involvement and interest in the College of Dental Medicine (CDM), including an alumnus who rose to the top ranks of military service. The alumni were honored May 4 during a MUSC Dental Alumni Association luncheon held in association with the South Carolina Dental Association (SCDA) annual meeting in Myrtle Beach.
Maj. Gen. Joseph
Webb Jr., and wife Anne, accept CDM's first alumni award from
association President Mike Nimmich at the May 4 meeting. The Dental Alumni Association presented the Association’s first Alumni Award to Maj. Gen. Joseph Webb Jr., a 1971 dental school graduate, who rose to the rank of Deputy Surgeon General of the United States Army, Chief of Staff of the U. S. Army Medical Command, and Chief of Staff of the U. S. Army Dental Corps.
Webb attended Furman University before entering MUSC’s dental program as a member of the school’s first graduating class. He received a Master of Sciences degree from George Washington University in Washington, DC. A graduate of the Army’s Command and General Staff College and the United States Army War College, Webb is a diplomate of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, and of the American Board of Oral Medicine.
CDM Distinguished Alumni Service Awards were presented to two dental practitioners, David F. Watson Jr., DMD, and Donald Edward Collins, DMD.
Watson, a 1974 CDM alumni, is in private practice in Greenville. He is a fellow of the American College of Dentists and the International College of Dentists, and a graduate of the Pankey Institute.
Watson was president of the Greenville County Dental Society and president of the Piedmont District. He led the SCDA in numerous roles, including directing secretary, chairman of committees and councils, secretary-treasurer, president in 2000, a member of the board of governors, and DenPac chairman. He also represented South Carolina nationally as a member of the American Dental Association and alternate delegate and delegate, Academy of General Dentistry.
Watson’s commitment and support of the college through the years has been significant. He has been an active member of the CDM Alumni Association and appointee to CDM’s Alumni Student Admissions Committee.
Collins, CDM Class of 1973, emerged from private practice to become a professor and leader of students and alumni.
After completing dental school, Collins worked as a part-time clinical instructor for the college while working in private practice in Mount Pleasant. In 1984, Collins chose teaching as his life’s work and joined the faculty on a full-time basis as assistant professor. He now is professor in the Department of General Dentistry.
Collins has been an active participant in numerous dental organizations, including the American Dental Association, the Coastal District Dental Society, the Academy of General Dentistry, Psi Omega, and OKU, and in 2006 he was named a Fellow in the International College of Dentists.
In addition to his professional and academic accomplishments, Collins was recognized for his leadership roles in the college, the MUSC Dental Alumni Association as a past faculty alumni liaison, director of dental alumni affairs, alumni association president, and representative to the MUSC Joint Alumni Board. He continues to be a class agent and member of the CDM’s alumni affairs committee, and the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors.
Finally, Hal Zorn, SCDA executive director, received an honorary alumnus award. Zorn joined the SCDA staff in 1988 after successful careers in journalism and county government.
“Hal has proven himself a true friend of dentistry and of dental education during his tenure with the organization,” said Mike Nimmich, DMD, SCDA president-elect. “His quiet efficiency and administrative and leadership skills have strengthened organized dentistry in South Carolina. …Hal continues to be an ally and friend of our school and has helped to forge and maintain a close and symbiotic relationship between the state organization and the college. We are especially grateful for his efforts in recent years in support of approval and funding for the new clinical education center for the MUSC campus.”
College of Medicine
The MUSC College of Medicine Alumni Association presented their 2007 Distinguished Alumnus Awards to Jerry Reves, M.D., vice president for Medical Affairs and dean of the College of Medicine, and Donald R. Johnson, II, M.D., immediate past chairman of the MUSC Board of Trustees. The awards were presented at the South Carolina Medical Association annual meeting, May 4-6, in Hilton Head.
Drs. Don Johnson,
left, and Jerry Reves accept the 2007 COM Distinguished Alumnus awards
May 4.Each year, the awards are presented to COM graduates whose personal lives, professional achievements and community service are recognized as reflecting the highest traditions of MUSC. Both men have demonstrated great pride and loyalty to MUSC through their leadership and contributions to the institution and the medical profession.
A native of Charleston, Reves is a 1969 COM graduate. After completing his anesthesiology residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, he served briefly in the U.S. Navy. In 1984, he joined the faculty at Duke University Medical Center and was named director of the Duke Heart Center in 1987. He returned to MUSC in 2001 to assume leadership as dean of COM.
Another Charleston native, Johnson is a 1984 COM graduate and was a former chief orthopedic surgery resident. Currently a member of the clinical faculty at MUSC’s Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Johnson has served on MUSC’s Board of Trustees since 1994, and is immediate past chairman. He is the former medical director of the Department of Rehabilitative Services, Bon Secours-St. Francis Hospital, and past president of the South Carolina Orthopedic Association. He serves on the editorial boards of the Spine Section Journal of the Southern Orthopedic Association and Journal of Surgical Orthopaedic Advances.
College of Nursing
The College of Nursing’s (CON) Alumni Association’s Recognition Awards were presented in March during the alumni campus homecoming, March 3. This year’s recipients were Marian Larisey, Ph.D., R.N., retiring dean of the nursing program at Charleston Southern University, and Jeanette Hartshorn, Ph.D., R.N., assistant vice president for research and program development at the University of Houston, Victoria, Texas. Larisey was a member of CON’s Class of 1969, and Hartshorn is a member of the school’s Class of 1981.
College of Health Professions
Marilyn Swygert and Patty Houser, current president of the College of Health Professions Alumni Association, both received Alumni Association awards from the college at its convocation ceremony May 17.
Marilyn Swygert,
left, and Patty Houser, center, receives the COP Alumni Association
awards from Interim Dean Dr. Becky Trickey May 17.Swygert received her master’s of health sciences from the college in 1985. Houser received her bachelor’s degree in Cytology in 1981, and master’s degree in 1986. She is a clinical instructor and coordinator of cytopathology for the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
Friday, June 15, 2007
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