Arthur A. Dugoni

Arthur A. Dugoni (born June 29, 1925) is the former dean of the Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry at University of the Pacific and a national leader in dentistry and dental education.

In addition to heading University of the Pacific’s dental school for 28 years, Dugoni served as president of the California Dental Association, the American Dental Association, the American Dental Education Association and the American Board of Orthodontics. He presented some 1,000 lectures, papers, clinics and essays during his career, and published more than 175 articles.

Dugoni championed a humanistic approach to dental education, one that became a model for the nation. He also worked to address the high cost of dental education, and led dental licensure reform at the state and national levels.

Dugoni grew up in San Francisco as one of three children of Arthur B. and Lina Dugoni, who were immigrants from Italy. In a 2011 interview published in Inside Dentistry, he recalled that everyone on the block was a relative and that the whole family came together every Sunday to eat, tell stories and sing operas.

He graduated as valedictorian from St. James High School in San Francisco, which later merged with St. Ignatius, and then began college at the age of 17 at the University of San Francisco. With the war, he transferred to Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, where he met his future wife, Katherine A. Groo, who attended Holy Names Academy. Dugoni graduated as valedictorian from Gonzaga in 1944.

Persuaded by the family dentist to follow in his footsteps, the young Dugoni enrolled in dental school at the University of Missouri–Kansas City before completing his D.D.S. degree at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in San Francisco, the school that would later be named after him. In 1948, Dugoni delivered the valedictory address to his fellow dentists at the school.

...
Wikipedia