CLASS NOTES
2019 Spring
Dr. George Gundersen, Tumwater, Wash.: Enjoy life on the farm in Tumwater. Diana and I had our 60th wedding anniversary this last June. (Spring 2019)
2018 Spring
Dr. George G. Ghosn, Tacoma, Wash.: I have been retired for three years after practicing dentistry for 50 years. Now spend four or five months living in Hawaii with my wife Karolyn. We take one or two trips a year to foreign lands. Children and grandchildren all doing well. (Spring 2018)
Dr. George Gundersen, Tumwater, Wash.: Bicycled from Cologne, Germany to Rome, Italy. After traveling along the beautiful Rhine, our adventure included France, Liechtenstein, Austria, and Switzerland. We were exhausted and took the bus into Rome. Fantastic trip. We were gone from Sept. 7 to Oct. 17. (Spring 2018)
Dr. Fred Quarnstrom, Seattle: I retired from clinical dentistry in my 54th year as a clinical general dentist. It has been a wonderful career. I had two years with Navy Seabees and Marines, including an amphibious landing in Vietnam in 1965. I did a one-year residency in anesthesiology. I was an insurance consultant for 20 years and taught over 750 CE presentations. I served on the Washington Department of Health and the Dental Quality Assurance Commission. I contributed three chapters on fear and pain control for books and 50-plus articles for dental journals. I had a wonderful time as a clinical dentist. (Spring 2018)
2015 Spring
Dr. George Gundersen, Tumwater, Wash.: Enjoyed getting together with classmates at our 50-year reunion. Publishing my first book of poetry, The Truth in Knowing. (Spring 2015)
2011 Spring
Dr. Fred Quarnstrom, Seattle: I still practice two days a week. I taught 13 weekends in 2010. I am an insurance consultant for several insurance groups. I reactivated my instrument instructor pilot rating, and my wife and I flew around Australia last year and will do the same in New Zealand next year. I am training to be a docent at the Museum of Flight. Life is busy and fun! (Spring 2011)
2010 Spring
Dr. Don Davidson, Bellevue, Wash. (via note from Dr. James McGraw): Former Distinguished Alumnus Don Davidson was elected Mayor of Bellevue by the City Council in January, his second term in that office after serving during the mid-1990s. (Spring 2010)
2009 Fall
Dr. Fred Quarnstrom, Seattle:I just reactivated my Instrument Flight Instructor License, CFII, after letting it lapse 35 years ago. I practice two days a week and do insurance reviews one day a week. I am teaching about two days a month at various CE departments, study clubs and dental associations. I wrote a book, Open Wider: Your Wallet, Not Your Mouth — the Consumer’s Guide to Dentistry. So I am down to about 20 hours a week; it feels like retired. (Fall 2009)
Dr. Fred Quarnstrom: I am now semi-retired. I work as an associate two days a week for Dr. Sun Hee Bang-Pastore, class of 1997. Dr. Bang purchased my practice three years ago. If I completely quit, my whole social life would be Costco and Ikea. I continue to do insurance reviews for a number of Union Dental Welfare Trusts. Two of my patients and I published a book, Open Wider: Your Wallet, Not Your Mouth. It is a consumers guide to dentistry this year and is available from Amazon.com . I continue to teach CE courses on fear and pain control for the UW, OHSU and UBC dental CE departments. Mariana and I celebrate our 40th anniversary this year and are having fun spoiling our two granddaughters, who are 3 and 4. (Fall 2008)
REUNIONS
On July 26, our class toured the School’s clinics and labs.
Thanks to the hard work of Tom Ware, our class representative, and his very able sidekick and bride, Linda Ware, the 50th anniversary celebration of the Class of 1964 was carried out with fantastic success. Randy Newquist, our great Director of Dental Alumni Services, was the anchor and guide for this much-appreciated celebration.
Four opportunities to meet, greet and reminisce about “the good old days” were planned and enthusiastically attended. Twenty-four classmates attended one or more of the scheduled events.
Dean Joel Berg invited the class to attend the graduation ceremony on June 7, 2014. Five ’64 grads and four wives accepted the gracious invitation, and our presence was acknowledged with heartwarming applause.
A golf outing hosted by Harold Pebbles in Bremerton, Wash., on July 25 was attended by four classmates. There were no reports of under-par scores. The ’64 class lunch was held in the University of Washington Club on the UW campus that day and was attended by 16 persons. Included in the group were some of the wives of the classmates and Randy Newquist.
On July 26, the classmates and some of the wives gathered for a tour of the new clinics and labs built since our graduation. What a big difference the years have brought. I suspect that we were all greatly impressed with the advances in equipment and dental facilities.
The class 50th – anniversary celebration was capped off by a delicious sit-down meal served in the Vista Café of the Genome Sciences Building. To add a little zest to the evening, an open microphone was made available for classmates who had the urge to reminisce about glorious past events and personalities. Words of appreciation were heartfelt. Now it’s on to 2019, when those of sound mind, body and disposition will answer the call to celebrate our 55th anniversary.
– Dr. Robert Flennaugh (Fall 2014)
IN MEMORIAM
ALAN D. BROOKS, CLASS OF 1964
Dr. Alan D. Brooks passed away on Jan. 20, 2020, in Geneva, Switzerland, while visiting his son’s family. He was 80.
Dr. Brooks was born on April 23, 1939 in Tacoma, Wash. He became interested in dentistry in the second grade. While at Lincoln High School, he built and flew model airplanes competitively. As a senior he won a spot at the National Science Fair, and after graduation worked to build the Alaska railroad to help pay for college. He met his lifelong love, Elaine, in chemistry class at Pacific Lutheran University in 1959, and they married in 1963. They lived in Augsburg, Germany for three years, while he served as a dentist in the U.S. Army.
Once back in Tacoma, he joined Dr. Jim Luzzi’s dental practice. The couple settled in to raise their growing family, became members of First Lutheran Church, and renovated a beach house on Vashon Island. They spent years supporting the community’s immigrants from Vietnam, Somalia, and elsewhere. He also served on the Tacoma Public Schools’ Citizens Committee and the PLU Corporation Board.
Dr. Brooks loved spending time on Vashon. He was also passionate about gardening, photography, reading, making and fixing things, and people. He was beloved for his gentle dentistry, kindness, generosity, and deep interest in his patients and their families. He was known for giving out toothbrushes at Halloween, bringing candy and pizzas to Point Defiance-Tahlequah ferry workers, supporting students on international exchanges, buying art from many local artists, and giving new high school graduates full toolboxes with which to start their adult lives. He was especially known for taking candid photographs of people at their work and play, which he enlarged, mounted, and presented to them as gifts.
Dr. Brooks loved gardening to the degree that he bought the empty lot across the street to make space for his favorite plants. There he created a park that was beloved by the neighborhood and included the garden gnomes he enthusiastically collected. For decades he was involved in the American Rhododendron, American Lily, and American Iris societies, for which he took on many leadership roles and responsibilities and volunteered as a judge. He also helped maintain the gardens at Point Defiance Park. At his bequest, his grave is inscribed “Filling his last cavity,” which always made him laugh.
Dr. Brooks is survived by his daughters Christine, a nurse practitioner, and Kathrine, a teacher; son Alan, a nurse and epidemiologist working in international development; daughter-in-law Myanna, a teacher; grandchildren Thomas, Katherine, Thomas, John, Sean, Niko, and Clara; three great-grandchildren; brother Sheldon; and large extended family. He was predeceased by his wife of 56 years, Elaine (in early January); brother Bill; and parents Mildred and Sheldon Brooks, who taught in the Tacoma public schools. (Tacoma News Tribune)
DR. GEORGE M. CHATALAS, CLASS OF 1964
Dr. George Macy Chatalas passed away on March 31, 2016 after a brief illness. He was 78.
Dr. Chatalas was born on Feb. 2, 1938 to George John and Faye Macy Chatalas in Seattle, where he attended elementary, middle and high school. He received his DDS from the UW in 1964. While there he was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and maintained strong relationships with his Fiji brothers over the years. Upon graduation he served two years as a captain in the U.S. Air Force at Biggs Field in El Paso, Texas, after which he returned to Seattle to practice dentistry with his father. In 1997, he sold his practice, retired from dentistry and moved with his wife, Marcia, to Tucson.
For many years Dr. Chatalas was on the affiliate faculty in the School of Dentistry’s Restorative department. He was inducted into the American College of Dentists and International College of Dentists. He served on the Washington State Board of Dental Examiners and the ADA Accreditation Commission and participated in the Seattle-King County Dental Society and the Washington State Dental Association on legislative and policy activities. He was a member of the American Society of Dental Consultants and performed quality reviews of dental insurance submissions for the Washington Dental Service. He was a serious advocate of quality and ethical dentistry and believed that everybody should have access to quality dental care. He often provided free dental work to those who didn’t have insurance.
Whether in Seattle or Tucson, Dr. Chatalas was involved in art, sports and politics. He was a lifelong Democrat, a competitive golfer and a soccer player into his 50s. In his retirement, he served as president of the Tucson Museum of Art Docent Council, where he was also vice president for docent training, and as a member of the board of directors of the Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault and the Arizona Commission on Judicial Performance Review. He pursued film acting and had roles in several local productions.
Dr. Chatalas is survived by his wife of 27 years, Marcia; his children Jody and Helen of Seattle; their mother, Catherine McCurdy Chatalas; his grandchildren, Ella Chatalas and Fin Butler of Seattle; sister Joan Westover and her three children of Seattle; cousins in Seattle, California, Oregon and Boise, Idaho; his canine pals Buddy, Benny and Sadie; and numerous friends in Seattle, Tucson and Boise. (Seattle Times)
DR. DONALD S. DAVIDSON, CLASS OF 1964
Dr. Donald Scott “Don” Davidson died on Feb. 6, 2021 in Overlake Hospital Medical Center in Bellevue, Wash., from multiple systemic issues. He was 81.
He was born in Portland, Ore., in 1939 to E.W. and Melba Davidson. He attended Stadium High School. At the UW he was a member of Theta Chi Fraternity. He and his wife, Sue, married in 1962. He served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force and started a dental practice in Bellevue in 1966.
Dr. Davidson was a two-term mayor of Bellevue and served on its City Council for 30 years. He was a past president of the Association of Washington Cities and the Seattle-King County Dental Society. He was named Washington State Dental Association’s Dentist Citizen of the Year. He served his beloved Bellevue in Rotary, as president of the Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the Overlake Hospital Board of Trustees, and in many state business and civic endeavors. He was also active in his children’s activities, including football, swimming, and Boy Scouts, all of which sparked his interests in city politics. He enjoyed fly fishing, painting, and bagpipes, and was an avid Husky fan.
Dr. Donaldson is survived by his wife, Sue; children Scott (Jennifer), Cheryl, and Brent; and grandchildren Emily, Ian, Madison, and Savannah. He was predeceased by his brother, John. (Seattle Times)
DR. JAMES L. LORD, CLASS OF 1964, GRADUATE PROSTHODONTICS CLASS OF 1970
Dr. James (Jim) Lorin Lord passed away Feb. 17, 2019, at the age of 81, in Seattle, due to complications associated with cancer following a stroke.
Dr. Lord was born Nov. 20, 1937, in Ellensburg, Wash., to Roy and La Verda Lord. He was raised in Colfax, Wash., and went on to attend Washington State University, where he graduated with a BS degree in zoology in 1960. He furthered his education at the University of Washington, where he obtained a DDS and a Master of Science in Dentistry in Graduate Prosthodontics.
He served on the UW dental faculty as an instructor, assistant professor, and associate professor for most of his career. Outside the university, he maintained a private practice in North Seattle for 27 years.
Dr. Lord was active in numerous local and national academic and professional associations. He enjoyed the professional collaboration and advancement of his profession through these affiliations and his service. He was president of the Seattle-King County Dental Society from 1987 to 1988, president of the Washington State Society of Prosthodontists in 1985, president of the Pacific Coast Society for Prosthodontics from 1990 to 1991, and president of the Academy of Prosthodontics in 1998.
An avid fisherman, he loved being on the water and spent many summer vacations with his three sons, living on their fishing boat in the San Juan Islands. He retired on his floating home in Lake Union’s Portage Bay in 2003, after selling his private practice.
Dr. Lord was a husband, father, stepfather, grandfather, brother, teacher, colleague, neighbor, and friend. In the final years of his life he suffered from dementia and as a result lived a relatively quiet and simple life on the water. He loved spending his days watching the boats and lake-goers make their way through the Montlake Cut of Lake Union and feeding “his” ducks and geese.
He is survived by his first wife, three sons, five grandchildren, two stepchildren, and three stepgrandchildren. (Legacy)