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The History of the Foundation of the Pierre Fauchard Academy
by Dr. Robert B. Shira, President 1988-2002
| In 1985 the Board of Trustees of the Pierre Fauchard Academy authorized the establishment of a Foundation that would support the programs of the Academy and develop funds to support a Grant/Project Program that would benefit the dental profession. These funds were to come from donations of the PFA fellows, bequests, and planned giving, memorial and honor contributions and Grants from other professional and private sources. Dr. Clifford Loader(past president of the Academy), with legal assistance, developed the Constitution and Bylaws for the Foundation which was incorporated under the laws of the State of California on May 23, 1986. These documents established that the Foundation would be a separate corporation governed by a Board of Directors consisting of Past Presidents of the Academy who were willing and able to serve. Bylaws were subsequently revised to make the President and the President - Elect of the Academy voting members. The revised Bylaws now provide for a Board of fourteen(14) members of twelve(12) Past Presidents and the Presidents and President - Elect of the Academy. An Executive Director was authorized and a Committee structure consisting of Executive Committee, Budget & Finance Committee, the Grants Committee, the Constitution and Bylaws was formed. A detailed protocol for the submission of Grant/Projects requests , a method to insure a detailed and complete evaluation of each request with the development of a recommendation for approval, deferment or rejection which in turn would require final action by the full Board of Directors. Goals and Guidelines for the Grants/Project Programs were developed which covered the type of Grants/Projects the Foundation would and would not fund. An information brochure covering this information was developed for distribution to individuals and organizations seeking funding for projects. Publications in various dental publications describing these programs was obtained and in time applications for support began to be received.
Dr. Espinach was very impressed with the United States, particularly President Reagan. He became interested in the Academy and for a time served as the Trustee of the Academy's Region 7 Latin America. During this period he hinted that he was considering including the Academy in his will. In 1984 he was elected to receive the distinguished Elmer Best Award which was presented by the President of the Academy before a large crowd in the impressive Opera House in San Jose, Costa Rica. At the same ceremony Dr. Espinach was presented with an autographed picture of President Reagan by the Ambassador of the U.S. to Costa Rica. All this apparently made a lasting impression on Dr. Espinach and when he passed away in 1992 he did indeed remember the Academy in his will. Dr. Espinach named four beneficiaries in his will; his brother, Carlos Brenes Espinach, his longtime and faithful house keeper, Nelly Chaves Araya, a college classmate, Dr. Newton Allen of Selma Alabama and the Pierre Fauchard Academy. His brother preceded him in death . The legacies were to be paid from income of his estate and when the other recipients passed away their portion was to go to the Academy. Since the money from the legacy was to be paid out slowly over a relatively long period of time, Ms Araya and Dr. Allen chose to receive their portions in lump sums. Thus the legacy was liquidated and Ms, Araya received thirty thousand colones(approximately $218,000) and Dr. Allen received four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. After paying all the expenses that had accrued in Costa Rica(Doctors, Hospital, Funeral Expense, Taxes, Termination pay for two employees, Executor Fees, Legal Fees, Transfer Fees, etc) the Academy received slightly more than five million dollars. The will specified that these funds were to be placed in a Foundation. At the present time the assessed value of the Foundation's funds is over six million dollars which is invested and the income from which is now supporting the Foundation and its projects. The Foundation is currently receiving approximately $425,000 each year. Prior to the receipt of this large legacy the PFA Fellows had contributed sufficient funds to warrant the Foundation to instigate a Dental Student Scholarship Program. Five, $1000.00 scholarship were established for the U.S. dental schools. Each Dean of the 54 schools were contacted and requested to select a nominee for one of these five awards. The response was disappointing with only twenty five (25) requests being submitted. A Committee of Foundation Trustees reviewed the applicants and selected the five recipients. The program continued in 1988, 89,90 and 1991 with the responses being somewhat better but never exceeded thirty eight (38) nominations. In 1992 the Foundation decided to discontinue the program since the response was so small and to allow the Foundation to develop a Capital Fund of at least $100,000. Currently the Foundation is basically involved in three programs. First is the Dental Student Scholarship Program. When the funds from the legacy became available this program was re-instituted with $100,000 being allocated to it. Since 2/3rds of the Academy's membership being in the United States and 1/3rd being in other countries, 2/3rd was assigned to U.S. Schools, and 1/3rd to International Schools, with each scholarship being $1,200.00. Since there were so many International Schools and the Foundation had no mechanism to evaluate the quality of these schools it was decided to allow the Section Chairperson in the various countries to select the schools to receive the Awards. The Awards are rotated among the non U.S. countries depending upon the number of PFA fellows in the respective countries. This program was instituted in 1996 and will continue indefinitely. In 1999 the Foundation increased the amount allocated to this program to $120,000, which raised the amount of each scholarship to $1,500.00. The second program is the Grant/Project Program. The first award authorized by Foundation was to the Connecticut Section of the PFA which developed a program to provide mouth guards for the participants of the 1995 Special Olympics which was held in their state. It was a very successful program and we are indebted to Dr. Robert E. Friedman for developing and operating this event. As the word of the Foundation's Grant/Project Program became better known in the dental community, requests for support began to pour in and the requests soon exceeded the available funds. The requests were quite varied so the Board decided that priorities for the available funds should be established. This was done and current priorities are: 1. Awards to support programs of the Pierre Fauchard Academy.In 1998 The Grants Committee approved a special Award, known as the Humanitarian Award to the Service Grant considered to be the best suggest in the current year. $5,000 was added to the funds requested in this application. The first Award in this category was presented in 1999 to M.E.N.D. program ( Meet Every Need with Dignity) which is an ongoing program in the San Fernando Valley of California. An appropriate certificate and a formal presentation will be made to the receiving group in 2000. The third basic program developed by the Foundation is support of projects in Costa Rica. Since the majority of the funds came from this country it was felt that substantial programs in that country should be funded. Immediately after receiving the funds from the Espinach estate the PFA Section in Costa Rica and the Rotary Club in San Jose submitted a request for $100,000 to construct a dental clinic to provide dental services for poor children and to be named in honor of Dr. Espinach. The Foundation felt this would be a wonderful tribute to him and agreed to provide the construction funds. The Foundation then obtained sufficient equipment to completely furnish three (3) operatories and sent this equipment to Costa Rica. Dr. Shira and Dr. Richard Kozal , Secretary/Treasurer of the Academy attended the dedication of the site of the proposed clinic in December 1993. The First Lady of Costa Rica also attended this ceremony. There was a great deal of delay in starting the construction and the Rotary Club finally withdrew. The project never came to fruition and the equipment we had sent was "tied up" in customs in that country. We eventually became aware of a Costa Rican charitable Foundation known as "Fundacion Piedad" which operated several health clinics throughout the country. They were interested in obtaining the equipment and were able to clear it from customs and it is now be utilized in the clinics they operate. In spite of this setback the Foundation still felt it should return some of the funds to Costa Rica so negotiations were begun with the School of Dentistry, University of Costa Rica to assist them in developing a modern multimedia and computer teaching center. The Foundation made a commitment of $104,500 over a five(5) year period and worked with the State Front Presentations Company of Savannah ,Georgia to develop and construct this facility. We are now in our fourth year of our commitment and the facility is scheduled for dedication sometime in 2000. Among the provisions in Dr. Espinach's will was a directive that the Foundation would establish and administer certain awards to outstanding leaders in dentistry. Again , the Foundation decided the ideal place for this award would be in Costa Rica. Therefore it authorized a yearly grant of $7,500 for a Bi-annual Award. The Award for the 1998-1999 Award was scheduled for November 1998, however it was postponed until February 1999. The Award for 2000 and 2001 is scheduled to be held in March of 2000. The clinician will be Dr.Bascones of Spain. The Award is titled the Loader-Espinach Award and it will be a continuing project for the Foundation. The Foundation has other recurring expenses in addition to the three basic programs it supports. A part time Executive Director was selected to manage the Central Office and manage the various Foundation programs. Since it would be necessary for over 1/3rd of the Foundations income come from contributions to be classified as a Public Foundation and we receive the majority of our funds from investments we do not qualify and hence we are a Private Foundation and we must pay taxes on our income. The Foundation originally met twice a year at the same time and place as the Academy. In the past three(3) years we have determined that we can conduct the administrative duties in one meeting and thus have decreased the meeting expenses. A large amount of various communications (correspondence, Fax and telephone) is required to manage the various programs which constitutes considerable expense. The Grants Committee has a line item budget which is necessary to conduct a thorough and complete evaluation of all Grant/Project requests. There is some expense associated with the dissemination of publicity to inform the dental public of the Foundation's programs. The President and Treasurer each have been assigned a small expense item which to date have been sparingly utilized. We have also retained a legal firm to represent us in matters requiring a legal opinion and /or action. For example; In 1996-97 we were threatened with a law suit threatened by a dentist in Costa Rica who contended that we (Foundation) were not spending our resources as directed by the legacy. He made many unwarranted and false statements regarding the Foundation and its Officers. He appeared before the Dental Society in San Jose and repeated these comments in an attempt to obtain their assistance in the suit, and have a large portion of the legacy returned to their country where it would be under his supervision. He also published these erroneous statements in the Costa Rician newspapers. In 1997 he attended the Foundation meeting and repeated his charges and requests. The Foundation, with appropriate legal counsel, knew it was doing nothing wrong, so this dentist was contacted and informed that if he did not cease and desist from his attacks on the Foundation and its officers he would be held personally and legally responsible for his actions. A copy of this communication was sent to our legal firm. From that day on we have heard nothing more from him and it was obvious he had acted on his own. It was obvious that his only purpose was to gain control of a large portion of the legacy. Hence it is necessary for the Foundation to have access to appropriate legal services. It is also for the Foundation to have insurance to cover Trustee Liability and have "honesty" bonds. It is the desire of the Foundation that the Pierre Fauchard Sections become more involved in the Grant/Projects Programs. As mentioned above this has the second highest priority in awarding support. Information has been disseminated to all Sections with the request that they develop programs to involve their members and hence increase the interest and participation in the Pierre Fauchard Academy. A simplified application form has been developed for the Sections and an Award of $5,000 for each approved application has been authorized. Several Sections have responded and we would like for many more to become involved. It has been mentioned previously in this report that the first Grant award by the Foundation was to the Connecticut Section in 1995. Awards have been also given to Rhode Island, South Carolina, Minnesota, Kentucky, Maryland, Wyoming, Iowa and several others. To date over $100,000 has been awarded to the Sections. We strongly recommend that other Sections become involved for it will not only benefit the Sections, but it will bring added recognition to the Foundation and the Academy. Another area is which the Sections can be involved is the dissemination of information regarding the Foundation's programs. Wide publicity is necessary to alert the profession to the Foundation's activities. Each year after the awards are determined the Chairperson of the Grants and the Publicity Committees develop a News Release covering the Programs that have received funds. It is important that this release be published in the dental publications at the local, regional and state levels. If the Section Chairperson and the Section members use their influence in getting this information published it would greatly help in spreading the information regarding the Foundation's activities which in turn should result in greater number of grant requests being received and probably result in a large variety of programs being funded by the Foundation. We would like for the Sections to become more involved in the Dental Student Scholarship Program. Each Section Chairperson receives copies of the information sent to the dental school. This information contains the name, address, and telephone number of the Chairperson in that state or region and the Dean is requested to contact him/her to seek their cooperation and attendance in the presentation ceremony. It would greatly enhance the significance of this ceremony if the Section Chairperson would participate. It should also be a pleasant experience for both the recipient, Dean and Section Chairperson. We would also like for the Sections to be aware of the Foundation and its activities and to submit any ideas and suggestions they feel will make the Foundation more effective in reaching its goals and objectives. We probably have a greater opportunity to contribute more to the dental profession than any similar organization because of the funds we have available. We want to do everything within our power to reach our full potential and the involvement of the Sections will assist us in reaching this goal. The support, cooperation, and involvement of the Sections will be of great value and will be appreciated. We want to thank you for all you have done and will continue to do in the future. *** Report presented at the Third Leadership Conference of the Academy February, 2000, Swissotel Chicago Illinois |
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