Classes of the 1960s
J. Don Harris (DDS ’64) retired after 55 years of practice but reports that he is now working three days a week at CrossingsCharity Clinic. He also retired from OKC County Board of Health, where he servedfor 50 years including as chairman of Partners in Public Health Foundation. He recently had the J. Don Harris Service Award named in his honor. He has retired from his team dentist role for the OKC Thunder and the Board of Directors of the Academy Professional Sports Dentistry. He received one of only eight Delta Dental Service Awards and founded D-DENT which has provided more than $26.3 million in free dental care since 1985.
James Elliott (DDS ’66) retired after 52 years of practice. He plays golf two to four times per week. He has a condo in Florida and spends three to four months a year there where he visits his four grandchildren. His wife, Judy, is still teaching Spanish for the University of Missouri’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Edward Read (DDS ’66) is retired and is working as a courier and playing racquetball.
Classes of the 1970s
Robert Gillum (DDS ’71) retired in 2016 and now helps with child care and assists his son with building and remodeling houses.
James Burke (DDS ’72) is a part-time associate clinical professor for the Department of Prosthodontics at the O.U. College of Dentistry.
Ron Shrum (DDS ’73) has been retired since 2017. His family moved to Arizona in May of 2015 and he is happy in retirement spending quality time with family, working diligently on his golf game four or five days per week, and continuing exploration and painting with water colors.
Classes of the 1980s
All is well for Floyd Tanoue (DDS ’80) after having practiced for 40 years. He continues to practice in Aiea, Hawaii, and has a daughter that is in her junior year at Creighton University School of Dentistry. She will join his practice when she graduates in 2022. He has a patient in the second-year class at the UMKC School of Dentistry. His son attends UNLV and hopes to enter its dental school in two years as he is currentlya junior, majoring in biology.
Daniel Ketteman (DDS ’81) is the director of the International Advanced Placement Program at Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine.
Maria Kunstadter (DDS ’81) has four kids, two grandkids!
Jerry Paz (DDS ’81) is keeping up with seven kids and 14 grandkids. He is enjoying being a grandparent with his wife, Barbara. He is preparing to retire to Lake of the Ozarks. He has been leading dental missions to Haiti since 1994.
Joe Richardson (DDS ’81) retired after 39 years on June 30, 2020. He covers for the dentist who purchased his practice as needed. He also helps his wife at her health food store and chases his grandkids around when they are visiting from out-of-state.
Richard Allinson (DDS ’85) started a job as assistant professor of restorative dentistry at A.T. Still University’s Missouri School of Dentistry and Oral Health in Kirksville, Missouri, in July 2019.
Mark Bentele (DDS ’86) retired from an Air Force career in 2007 and has been in private orthodontic practice in Colorado Springs since then. He is a member of the Children’s Hospital Colorado Cleft Lip and Palate team, as well.
Kenneth Frick (DDS ’86) is starting his ninth year as director of the Advanced Program in Endodontics.
Mike Hawkins (DDS ’86) sold his practice in 2012 and fully retired in 2020. He enjoys the mountain lifestyle of Colorado and is waiting on grandchildren.
Mark Herzog (DDS ’86) has been in private practice in Ellsworth since graduation.
Kurt Kavanaugh (DDS ’86) is still working as an orthodontist in Kansas City. He has been married for 31 years and has three children: Tyler, 27; Matthew, 25; Molly, 20.
Classes of the 1990s
Tressa (Bridges) Parkinson (DDS ’96) is teaching at the UMKC School of Dentistry.
Classes of the 2000s
David Hart (DDS ’06) married Susan Kulakowski on Feb. 1, 2020.
Classes of the 2010s
Adam McClellan (DDS ’10, PERIO ’12) is enjoying his periodontal practices on both sides of the state line. He and his wife, Julia, are excited to welcome their first child — a little girl — in February. He is trying to play as much golf as hecan, while he can.
Cyndi Blalock (DDS ’11) is raising two kids and building a business! She is doinggeneral dentistry and treating lip and tongue tie with laser. She enjoys servingmothers and babies and says they are such an amazing population of people. She is proud to empower mothers and
help the tiniest patients in her practice. She and her husband treat oral facial pain patients together in the office they share. They have built a multidisciplinary practice and enjoy working together.
Kyle Shull (DDS ’11) opened his own practice in Columbia, Missouri, in 2018 (Bear Creek Family Dental). In 2019, he was awarded the Fellowship in the Academy of General Dentistry (FAGD). He and his wife have three wonderful children, ages 6, 4, and 1.