It is 20 years since I was invited to take over the chairmanship of our alumni association. To mark these momentous milestones the Newsletter has been published in a bright new cover. The cover image of that great Bristol icon, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, is taken, courtesy of Tony Cropper ('74), from a series he has taken from a kite. Thanks, Tony!
There are three new faces on our committee this year: Hemendra Shah, Hajirah Mir and Alan Harrison. Hem is the new Senior President of UBDSS, having replaced Matthew Garret who has moved to London on being appointed a consultant in restorative dentistry at King's. Hem is a Bristol graduate of 2001. Following VT training and several SHO posts he undertook orthodontic specialist training at Bristol Dental Hospital and Royal United Hospital, Bath He now works between the two hospitals as a FTTA in orthodontics. Haj, who is the new President of UBDSS, was born and bred in Chatham, Kent. She is captain of the Ultrasonics dental netball team and, when not potting balls through hoops, enjoys baking and decorating cakes.
Alan is another retired 'heavyweight' on the committee. He was Head of the Dental School from 1989 to 2000, Honorary Dental Surgeon to Her Majesty the Queen from 1996 to 1999, Honorary Colonel Commandant to the Royal Army Dental Corps from 1996 to 2001, and Colonel in the Territorial Army. With a CV like that we had to get him on to our committee ! His current interests include digital photography and woodwork.
We can again point to the success of alumni reunions. Seven were held last year: 1963, 1964, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1979 and 1984. Reports of all but two of them are included in this Newsletter – it's almost impossible to get them all ! Having said that, there was a 'first' this year: receiving two reports of the same reunion ! With the authors' permission I cobbled the two together. Many organisers have taken up the offer of a tour of the School, and Gordon Gray has again been chief tour guide, greatly appreciated by all. Some have also acted on our suggestion to have a group photograph taken at their reunion, and Nikki Atack has collected and framed them all. Our plan is to use wall space in the 1985 building along the staircase leading up to the library and beyond. The display of photographs should be of interest to returning alumni, but how much will they slow down the progress of Gordon's tours ?
Our biggest single donation (£1000) has again been to the dental school library – our donations over the last eight years now total £10,713, with which the University has bought 264 books for our library, which is immensely appreciated. But the total donated to students exceeds this – supporting electives, Final Year Dinner, Dental Ball, and more (this year including buying kit for the rugby team. In addition to the six 'year 4' electives, we made a donation to a group of nine 'year 3' students, led by James Pang, who volunteered to join a charity-based project in Kenya last summer. Our BDAA Elective Prize, which we established last year, was won by Elizabeth King for her project entitled 'Factors Affecting the Size of a Cavity When Removing Composite Resin Restorations'.
My thanks to all contributors, to Dominic Alder who puts it all together, to Nye Fathers who takes most of the reunion group photographs, and to Tony Cropper for the cover photograph.