Well, well, well, it looks like spring is just around the corner and hopefully days below zero are a sign of the past, at least this year.
I will continue my tour of our WVU SCHOOL OF DENTISTRY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION and hopefully give you an idea of everything they do for us and the students at the number 1 DENTAL SCHOOL IN THE WORLD. (I’ll bet you have heard that many times before.)
I thought in this issue I would tell everyone of some of the awards the Alumni Association gives every year starting with the DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS and ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS.
The first question you might ask is who decides these awards and when are they presented. One of the committees in our Alumni Association is the Awards Committee. It consists of five individuals, our Executive Director Cathy Boyce, two representatives from hygiene, Carol Spear and Tiffany Summerlin, and two representatives from dentistry, Bob Hornbrook and yours truly. As you know I love pictures, so you know who we are. The members of the committee are appointed by the Board of the Alumni Association, and if you would like to serve, please let our Executive Director, Cathy Boyce, know your intentions. Also, if you know of someone deserving the following awards, please let the committee know.
WVU SOD Alumni Association Awards Committee
Although the committee makes recommendations, the final say is always by a vote of the Board. The 2026 award recipients have already been selected; however, I will wait till after Spring Alumni Weekend to give you their bio. (Maybe I will keep you in suspense????)
The Alumni Achievement Award was the first award given by the Association. It was presented in 1965 to an individual for service to the profession, the state, and the WVU School of Dentistry. The first recipient of this award was Dr. Carl Laughlin. Among the many achievements he accomplished over his illustrious career were President of the WV Dental Association and the first West Virginian to become president of the American Dental Association. I will include pictures of the first award recipient. I was very fortunate to know Dr. Laughlin very well before he passed about 30 years ago. He was one of the West Virginia dental giants, and he along with other officers of the WV Dental Association were the ones most responsible for us having a dental school in Morgantown. This award is always presented in the spring during Alumni Weekend along with the other award, the DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD which I will now explain.
The next award that was presented by our Alumni Association was the Distinguished Alumni Award. This award was first presented in 1985, and the recipient was Dr. Norton Smith. As many of you know, Norton was the longest serving Executive Director of our Association and a 40-year member of the faculty. Many functions of our Alumni Association are thanks to the vision and dedication of Norton. Unfortunately, both Carl and Norton have now gone to a greater place in heaven, but their achievements will never be forgotten.
If anyone has not received a copy of the book on the “HISTORY OF THE WVU SOD ALUMNI ASSOCIATION” all you need to do is send me an email and your name and address, and I would be glad to send you a copy. It has all the award recipients over the years. (My email is rwanker@hsc.wvu.edu).
There are other awards, mainly student awards, given by our Association but I thought I would wait for another edition before I mention them.
I will conclude this “COACH’S ALUMNI CORNER” by reminding everyone that next month on April 24, 2026, we will be celebrating our 65th reunion. If you need information on any of these events you can always contact our Executive Director, Cathy Boyce or you can go to our website at dentistry.wvu.edu/alumni/reunion-weekend.
Our Executive Director, Cathy Boyce, and our Marketing and Communications director at the school, Jessica Wilmoth, do an incredible job of keeping us informed of everything both at the school and the WVU Dental Alumni Association. I thought I would also take this opportunity to show a picture of Jessica and personally thank her for everything she does for the school (by the way she is ALMOST as big a Mountaineer fan as this old coach)!!!!!!!!
You can also find all sorts of school and alumni news on the website so please check it out (Coach’s orders).
Have a GREAT SPRING, looking forward to seeing everyone at the reunion as always GOD BLESS YOU ALL AND LET’S GOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS
Coach