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College of Dentistr y
The College named a suite in the Endodontics Clinic for Dr. Franklin S. Weine, ’57, longtime Professor and Director of Graduate Endodontics at Loyola.
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lose ties between the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry and the Loyola School of Dentistry stretch back to the early part of the 20th century, when the two schools were located mere steps away from each other on Harrison Street on the Near West Side. Students from each school would sit in on each other’s classes, and several faculty taught at both institutions. In the 21st century, alumni of the two schools have renewed those ancient ties. In 2003, the UIC College of Dentistry and its Alumni Association Board of Directors began its efforts to bring alumni of the shuttered Loyola University Chicago School of Dentistry into the UIC alumni fold. Dr. Thomas J. King Jr., ’71, was President of the College’s Alumni Board in 2003-04, and he believed that “The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry is important to all dentists in Illinois—alumni and non-alumni alike.” Dr. King noted that the College “offers all dentists Continuing Education opportunities vital to keeping their practices up to date. It provides us with the graduates of its DDS [now DMD] and specialty programs who constitute our State’s pool of licensed dentists. It allows us to refer difficult cases to faculty who not only can treat them expertly, but who can utilize them to train students to be able to recognize and deal with similar cases. Finally, it provides us with experienced young dentists who will potentially transition into our practices.” The College and its Alumni Board wanted Loyola alumni to be able to take advantage of those opportunities as well.
Board Presence In 2003, Dr. Charles DiFranco, Loyola ’81, Loyola MS Periodontics ’83, joined the Alumni Board as its first Loyola representative. The board voted in 2006 to allow non-UIC alumni to become officers, and Dr. DiFranco would go on to eventually become President in 2010-11—the first Loyola alum to head the UIC Dental Alumni Association Board. Meanwhile, then-Dean Bruce S. Graham of UIC and former Dean Raffaele Suriano of Loyola developed a close relationship as they worked to 13