Dental World®		March/April• 2003
	PIERRE FAUCHARD ACADEMY

	President’s Message: An Attitude of Gratitude
	The value of great leaders who are dedicated to service to their families, profession, and their community was exemplified so well in the life of Major General Robert B. Shira, President Emeritus, Foundation of the Pierre Fauchard Academy. My visit to the memorial services and funeral held in his honor instilled in me a profound gratitude for the opportunity to be alive, to share life with a wonderful family, to be of service to the profession of Dentistry, and to make a difference in the lives and health of my patients and neighbors through personal service in my practice and to my local community. The legacy he created in this life merits our emulation .We each have a choice in creating our destiny and the legacy we will leave to others. Giving ourselves to the service of others and building and uplifting them in their efforts to create their own legacy elevates us all. The ability to see the gifts in others and encourage them to build on them for the benefit of worthy causes is one of the marks of a great leader. I recall Dr. Vern Eyre who nominated me for fellowship in the Pierre Fauchard Academy. His faith and confidence in me and his recognition of my efforts to be of service and create		excellence in my dental practice served as a catalyst for me to want to be more, do more, and give more of myself in service. Each of us within the Academy’s fellowship has within us the power to elevate and inspire others in our profession by inviting them into the Academy fellowship where they can reach higher levels of service through support from the programs available to their service. Great leaders inspire the manifestation of leadership in others by mentoring and example. I encourage each of you, Fellows of the Pierre Fauchard Academy, to invite at least one of your worthy colleagues into fellowship in the Academy each year. Your successes in sharing the honor of fellowship will be magnified to strengthen and protect this profession of service and health. The promotion of excellence in ourselves and others will create unlimited excellence in the world around us. Our legacy will be the preservation of all that is good in our lives and the dental profession we love.
			Gary Lowder, DDS President

	Table of Contents- March/April 2003
	Presidents Message		Rebuttal
	Mary Ann Irvine		Foundation News
	Funeral Services		Grants and Scholarships
	Dr. Robert B. Shira		Foundation News Cont'd
	The Legacy Continues		Foundation News USA
	Our General Marches On		Section News- International
	Mobility Gains Momentum		Section News- Cont'd
	Central Office Report		Section News- United States
	2003 Calendar
	new online and printable format
	download newsletter in Adobe PDF format _665k		Page 1 | Page-2 | Page-3 | Page-4 |

	From the Desk of Mary Ann Irvine…
	Dear Friends of my father Dr. Robert Shira: I bring you sad news that my wonderful dad, Bob Shira, passed away on November 22, 2002, at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, DC. He was well until early May, when he was hospitalized by pneumonia and a sepsis infection from which he never recovered. He was still very active and serving as President of the PFA Foundation. On May 1, he was a guest at a White House ceremony, and on May 2 at a VIP Dinner at the Pentagon. Both events were held to honor the bravery of a dentist from World War II, an effort daddy started over 30 years ago when he was Chief of the Army Dental Corps. Dad was a remarkable man and he had an incredible life. As a member of the Pierre Fauchard Academy said when dad was inducted into the International Dental Hall of Fame in October 2000, “He will pass this way but once.		There will never be another like Dr. Shira, who helped forge our profession into the high quality standard that distinguishes dentistry as a profession.” The family, all his daughters and their spouses, his grandchildren and their spouses, and great-grandchildren, will gather in Washington to say good-bye. He will be honored with a full military funeral and will be buried with mother in Arlington National Cemetery. Words cannot express how much we already miss this great, warm, wonderful man. Please feel free to call, e-mail, or write with any questions or memories. Sincerely, Mary Ann Irvine Irvinecore@aol.com

	Academy Represented at Funeral Services by President Lowder by President Gary Lowder
	I represented our Academy in the solemn ceremonies for Dr. Robert B. Shira in Silver Springs, Maryland, on December 19th and then again at the Old Fort Chapel at Fort Meyer in Arlington, Virginia, the next day. It was an honor for me to be in the presence of the Shira family and to convey the love and appreciation of the entire Academy and the Foundation to them, and in respect for Dr. Shira. The general mood was that of a celebration of a life well-lived, of a man who was great in his love for his family, nation, and all the many organizations he served. His daughters, Sharon, Mary Ann, and Linda Kay, as well as their spouses and grandchildren, and great grandchildren, were very generous and kind to me.		They greatly appreciated my attendance on behalf of the Academy/Foundation. General Chandler, General Brady, General Loefler, Admiral Sazima, and Asher were also among those who attended. I was able to speak a few minutes at the Silver Springs service, and to read the part of Dr. Shira’s entry in the book, Legacy, published by Drs. Loader and Kishi in 1990. The military funeral proceedings were very dignified and fitting for this great leader. I know we will all miss his presence at our meetings. But we will all remember him fondly and with great appreciation for all that he did for the Academy and for the Foundation.

	Dr. Robert B. Shira – rests in peace in God’s hands –
	In writing, when the story of an era is finished, a period is placed. You turn the page and a new chapter is started. The chief author of that period passes from history, so it is a convenient place to end that chapter. But, as in all of history, these eras overlap. They do not end at the period or at the start of a new chapter. And such is the life of this Oklahoma dentist, General, surgeon to the President, Dean, Provost, ADA President, PFA President, Foundation President, and so many other titles that reflect his genius and talents that it has taken several editions of Dental World to even scratch the surface of the multifaceted diamond that was Dr. Robert Shira. The events in his many decades of life that he started moving not only have changed the face of the profession, but his administration, his philosophy of life, will affect many in the decades to come who will not even know his name. This mortal immortality is the most a human can achieve in this life. Now, free of his mortality, we can expect Dr. Bob to continue to watch over and move the positive forces of the universe for the betterment of all—as he did in life. We all will miss his physical presence. We all will miss his acute manner of reaching right to the heart of a problem or situation and arrive at the answer. His demeanor was such that when he suggested an answer, no one questioned the mason from etching it into stone. He was the closest thing to our father, our loving grandfather, to a mortal god of legend.		Those events he has put in motion will continue on. The chapter of the era in dentistry that he began will continue without its creator. But it will continue, long after his name is forgotten. When the General received the Dental Hall of Fame Award as the first and only living professional to be so honored, it was mentioned that he alone can be singled out as a pivotal point in our profession, like Pierre Fauchard, like G. V. Black, and the many others honored in the Hall of Fame that contributed so much to dentistry, and so much to life on this planet. Many of those so honored had the effect of their genius distributed worldwide. But Dr. Shira is the only honoree who personally delivered them to the corners of the world. He was just such a person. You could not be with him but moments and not be affected by the driving philosophy of life that compelled him to teach. Perhaps, comparison to dental legends is an inaccurate category to remember the man by. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle might be a far better list of companions. Long after the fame and techniques of Dr. Shira have started to fade in our own mortal minds, there will still remain, to our last breath, the effects he had on each of us on how to lead our lives.

	Table of Contents- March/April 2003
	Presidents Message		Rebuttal
	Mary Ann Irvine		Foundation News
	Funeral Services		Grants and Scholarships
	Dr. Robert B. Shira		Foundation News Cont'd
	The Legacy Continues		Foundation News USA
	Our General Marches On		Section News- International
	Mobility Gains Momentum		Section News- Cont'd
	Central Office Report		Section News- United States
	2003 Calendar
	new online and printable format
	download newsletter in Adobe PDF format _665k		Page 1 | Page-2 | Page-3 | Page-4 |