Bruce Brownfield Smith was born December
16, 1917 in Seattle, WA of a pioneer family. He passed away on October 28, 2007 after a
brief illness. His father and uncle were
both dentists. Bruce’s father, Nathan
Smith, practiced dentistry until he was 90 and he lived to be 100. Graduating from high school in 1936, Bruce
spent three years at the University
of Washington in
pre-dental studies. The U of W School of
Dentistry was not yet in existence, so, Bruce enrolled at North
Pacific Dental
College (now University of Oregon)
and graduated with honors, Omicron Kappa Upsilon, receiving the DMD and B. Sc.
degrees.
While waiting to be called to active duty with the
Naval Reserve, Bruce spent one year teaching at North Pacific
Dental College. He served on active duty for three years
during World War II in California and Okinawa. Following
the war he entered private practice in Seattle
and later became one of the original faculty members at the new University of
Washington School of Dentistry on a part-time basis, teaching Operative
Dentistry, Crown and Bridge and Ceramics.
Bruce served as mentor of the John Kuratli
Study Club (Crown and Bridge) in Oregon
for 18 years and was a member of the University-Ferrier Gold Foil Study Club
from 1949 through 1985. He was a founder
and first President of the American Academy of Gold Foil Operators (1952 and 1953) and
received fellowship in the American
College of Dentists and
the International College of Dentists in 1953.
He was a member of the Pierre Fauchard Society. He has served as vice-chairman and chairman
of the American Dental Association section in Operative Dentistry (1976). He was President of the Academy
of Operative Dentistry in 1974, as
well as President of the American
Academy of Restorative
Dentistry in 1978-79. He was a member of
CAIC dental study seminar. He received the 1998-99 Seattle King County Dental Society Service Award in
honor of his 57 years of dental practice.
Dr. Smith has published
several papers in the dental literature and produced a movie, Practical Rubber
Dam Application, with Dr. Gerald D. Stibbs, which won an award at the French
Film Festival. He has contributed to
various Operative Dentistry textbooks.
He was the first in the United States
to organize a closed circuit T.V. presentation of chair dental operations for
the Washington State
dental meeting in Seattle. He has been an instructor of a number of
two-week post graduate courses in Ferrier gold foil procedures as well as a
three day course in class II gold foil operations with Dr. Stibbs. He has given several courses and lectured on
the use of dental porcelain throughout the United States and many foreign
countries. Bruce has designed several
special instruments for use in gold foil operations. He was mentor of the George Ellsperman Gold
Foil Study Seminar in Seattle. Bruce was honored with the Distinguished
Member award of the American Academy of Gold Foil Operators and also the Award of
Excellence from the Academy
of Operative Dentistry. He was licensed to practiced dentistry in Washington, California
and Oregon.
For recreation, Bruce engaged in sailboat
racing for 20 years. In the early
fifties he was a champion fencer (1st place in the Junior Men’s Pacific
International Fencing tournament, 1956).
He served as a summit guide at Mt.
Rainier and was a member of the Mt. Baker
avalanche rescue effort featured in Life Magazine. In high school, Bruce was an accomplished
archer winning the Northwest Junior Championship. He was also an accomplished singer and loved
to drive his high performance Porsche.
Bruce was preceded in death
by his wife Lola and is survived by daughters Joy Smith and Nicki
Smith. A memorial service will be held at
2:45 pm on November 10th at the Seattle Yacht Club.
This article was written by Dr. J. Martin Anderson and
appeared in the Seattle
Times and PI the week of November 1, 2007