Dr. Ernest Svensson Wins Distinguished Alumni Award
The Dental Alumni Society honors a College of Dentistry
alumnus each year with the Distinguished Alumni Award, which is presented at
Post College Assembly. The award is given to alumni who demonstrate
good character, and who have given outstanding service or other
contributions to the College of Dentistry, to the fields of art and
science, or to organized dentistry.
This year's Distinguished Alumni Award
was presented to Dr. Ernest Svensson. A graduate of the class
of ’59, Dr. Svensson has been for the past 36 years a full-time
faculty member in the College of Dentistry's Division of Restorative and Prosthetic
Dentistry. Prior to his service at the college,
he spent 15 years as a dentist in the U.S. Air Force, completing his prosthodontic training at Andrews
Air Force base in Washington, D.C., in 1971.
Since 1979, he has been the primary organizer of the Carl O.
Boucher Prosthodontic Conference. He also has served as the secretary for that
conference and its organization for more than 25 years, and he has
been honored with an endowment fund that provides compensation for
the speaker at the annual Boucher Conference. A respected educator
and faculty member in the College of Dentistry, he has
served as an instructor in the graduate prosthodontic program since 1987,
while also serving as
program director from 2004 to 2009.
In a speech honoring Dr. Svensson as this year's Distinguished
Alumni Award winner, Dr. Ed McGlumphy, one of Dr. Svensson's former
students and a current faculty member, remarked, “In 1981, I remember my freshman
class being more than a little afraid of our handsome,
ex-military RPD design course director who barked out commands like
' no I-bars on the canines, please' and 'stress beakers are stress
makers.' It didn’t take us long to figure out that behind
that gruff exterior, Dr. Svensson had a heart of gold."
Dr. McGlumphy added, "Dr. Lisa Knobloch ('91, '94,) a
current faculty member in the college and a former resident of Dr.
Svensson's, said he's forgotten
more about prosthodontics than she'll ever know. Another former
resident, Dr. Marco Padilla ('88), calls him the 'heart and soul of the program.' Still
another former student, Dr. Greg Wall ('91), refers to him simply as 'our rock.' His patients, students,
and residents would all agree that he embodies the philosophy that
says 'they don’t care how much you know, until they know
how much you care.' I present Dr. Svensson to you today -- a true gentleman, an
outstanding role model as a husband, father, and grandfather -- and
a health care provider, a consummate dental educator, and someone
who truly
does care.”
The College of Dentistry congratulates Dr.
Ernst Svensson for his lifetime of service in dentistry, and for being an
accomplished and inspirational alumnus, colleague, and friend.
[June 2011]
