Dr. Joseph Cappuccio passed away last May 23rd after a heart attack at the age of 87. He was an energetic person always taking the lead in establishing new ideas and pioneering frontiers. Dr. Cappuccio had led the American Dental Association (ADA) as President. He was a pillar of strength as a PFA International Trustee in the "formative years" of the Academy. His input on the Board of Trustees led to many new ideas and in particular to the founding of the International Hall of Fame and subsequently the International Hall of Fame concept. His personal contacts committed the PFA and Bud Tarrson to funding the Wall of Fame at the Sam-uel Harris National Dental Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, at his Baltimore College of Dentistry, where he was on staff. With major assistance from International Trustee Pierre Marois of Paris, France, Joe was able to establish our global venue at the Conseil des Chirurgien Dentistes Headquarters in Paris.
Paris Hall of Fame with (L-R) PFA President Shig Kishi, Trustee Pierre Marois, past ADA President Frank Bower, Chairman Joe Cappuccio, PFA President Nicholas Saccone, and Secretary General Richard Kozal
Maryland Chair Joe Cappuccio presenting their Distinguished Service award to Dr. Brotman with PFA Presi-dent Foster Bens
Then with private funding, he had the PFA help establish the National Dental Museum venue. Later Joe, Pi-erre, and Richard Kozal set up a Hall of Fame TV kiosk at the ADA Headquarters in Chicago.
Dr. Cappuccio headed up the Hall of Fame Committee with many prominent international dental leaders who set up guidelines for nominating dental greats for the Hall, established a list of such, scheduled prominent lo-cales for their national induction, and then created recognition for the PFA Hall.
When Dr. Cappuccio retired from the established Committee, he turned it over to prominent dental leader Dr. H. Raymond Klein (past PFA President, 1991-92) to carry it on, followed by past Canadian Dental Associa-tion President Kevin Roach (past PFA President 2003-04).
Former Hall of Fame Committee member, past President Nicholas Saccone (1995-96), remembers, "(Dr.) Joe wanted the Wall of Fame to be composed of the giants in the history of the dental profession without politics being involved."
Dr. Cappuccio also conceived of setting up mobile placards with the Hall of Fame dentists on them for tempo-rary display at airports and other museums. He also wanted us to produce a booklet with a brief synopsis of the lives of these giants in dentistry for distribution. His idea captured the imagination of dental leaders around the world as the Hall of Fame grew internationally with many dental professionals being honored from around the globe. Even as Joe left us he was arranging to have the Hall of Fame U.S. venue located at his alma mater, the University of Maryland.
Dr. Cappuccio, born in Rhode Island in 1921, received his undergraduate degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1943, and his DDS degree from the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery in 1946. He served as an Army Battalion Commander (1943-45) at the University of Maryland and earned an Oral Surgery Fel-lowship (1947-48) there. He was President of the Catholic Youth Organization for the Archdiocese of Balti-more (1943-48) and chaired the Youth Delegation of Americans at the 1948 London Youth Conference spon-sored by the National Welfare Association of England.
He was accepted to the Faculty of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery in 1950 in the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery where he taught for some 37 years until becoming Professor Emeritus in 1987. He then became Special Assistant to the Dean for Alumni Affairs from 1987 until 1997. He had served as Presi-dent of their Alumni Association (1961-62) and was Executive Director of the Alumni Association for 20 years.
He received the Rhode Island Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1977 and the University of Maryland Distin-guished Alumni Award in 1978. He was past President of the Baltimore City Dental Society, of the Maryland State Dental Association, of the Middle Atlantic Society of Oral Surgeons, of the Maryland State Dental Soci-ety of Anesthesiologists, ICD Regent for the Maryland Section, ACD Chairman of the Maryland Section, ACD Board of Regents (1980-84), and served as the staff oral surgeon for the Maryland Penitentiary Hospital for 20 years.
Dr. Cappuccino chairing the Hall of Fame Committee Meeting at the Chicago ADA Building with past ADA Presidents James Saddoris, Frank Bower, Trustee Pierre Marois, ICD past President Joseph Tomari, PFA President Foster Bens, and Trustee Nicholas Saccone in 1991
He was honored with the Maryland State Dental Association's 1975 Distinguished Service Award, Honorary Kentucky Colonel (1979), the State of ¬Arkansas' Arkansas Traveler Award (1979), State of Oklahoma's Honorary Indian Chief Award, Honorary Member of the Panama Dental Association (1980), the Republic of Panama's National decoration of the Order of Vasco Nunez De Balboa, Honorary Member of the Virgin Is-lands Dental Association (1979), Honorary Member of the Puerto Rico Dental Association (1979), and Hon-orary Member of the American Dental Society of Europe (1980).
He became PFA Section Chairman for Maryland, founder and Chair for the PFA Hall of Fame Committee, and lost by one vote to become a PFA Trustee of the International Board.
He was ADA 4th District Trustee (1971-77) and ADA President (1978-79). His honors and achievements fill pages of his C.V. His wife Rocella of 49 years passed away in 2005. They had one daughter Mary Louise Cappuccio.
He was further honored by PFA in 2007 by receiving the PFA 2007 International Distinguished Service Award at their 71st annual Awards Banquet in San Francisco by then President William Winspear (DW, Nov/Dec, p. 5-6).