Winter 2000 Portrait of a Professional

Dr. Bob Varner, our current PCSO President, has trouble believing that he has been given the opportunity to lead the Pacific Coast orthodontists. When praised, he is a bit surprised: "What’d I do?" I say, he’s earned the privilege. Bob has served the PCSO for several years. As a Board member, AAO House Delegate, Secretary-Treasurer, and as President-elect, Bob comes to each meeting fully prepared, materials read, people talked to. His presence in any meeting is valuable and highly regarded by his colleagues.

Early Life

Bob was born in Grant’s Pass, Oregon, 75 miles south of his current practice in Roseburg. He was raised in the Old West, six miles out of town. Bob remembers his country neighborhood very fondly. Everyone helped each other put up the hay at harvest and the Varners initially farmed their 10 acres with two draft horses. It was very rural. Some neighbors’ houses even had dirt floors. Bob remembers when he was very young that his house had no running water and an outside privy. His sisters ironed clothes with an iron they heated on the stove. He bathed in the kitchen, because they had to heat the water on the stove. Of course, he grew up without TV. When the Varners finally got a phone, it was a party line shared with three other families. Each had a code ring, but if you picked up the phone at the wrong time you could hear your neighbor’s conversation.

They grew all their own food so there was little need to go to the store—and no transportation, anyway. After school, Bob had chores, such as decapitating the chicken for dinner. Every few months they butchered a steer and made a batch of soap, rendering the fat and lye in a huge cauldron. Bob was the youngest of five kids, and there was a six-year gap between Bob and his next oldest sibling. Bob contracted polio when he was nine and could not walk for almost a year, so he completed the third grade at home. Fortunately, he was one of the very lucky few who completely recovered. During his paralysis Bob says he read from cover to cover every issue of National Geographic ever published. No wonder he is so good at Trivial Pursuit! Bob’s dad died when he was in the fourth grade so, for a good part of his childhood, it was just himself and his mother in the house. His older siblings were all gone from the time Bob was 11.

Bob was considered a bit of an oddball in this community. He had decided early on that he wanted to go to college and be a "doctor of some kind"—an uncommon goal. He didn’t worry about whether he could afford it. As he says, "I was clueless."

College Years

Inspired by a high school chemistry teacher, Bob enrolled in the University of Oregon in Eugene as a chemistry major, figuring on a Ph.D. and teaching career. The pre-chem meetings dissuaded him when he met the future chemists and realized he was not a kindred spirit. He considered pre-med, but decided he could not afford it, so he transferred to Oregon’s arch rival Oregon State University during his junior year to study pharmacy.

While registering in the OSU gym, he met Jacquetta (Jaye) Ditto, who looked so similar to a University of Oregon fraternity brother that he braved the question, "Don’t I know you from somewhere?" (Great opening line!) It turned out she was his friend’s sister. Encouraged, Bob asked Jaye out a few times, but she was always busy. One day he saw her in the student union. When she tried to introduce him to a friend, she forgot his name! Later, she sent him a card that said, "Let me call you sweetheart because I keep forgetting your name." Happily, after much persistence, Bob finally managed to get a date with her.

After one semester, Pharmacy did not make the grade either. The curriculum wasn’t interesting and the study routine was memorize, memorize, memorize! Bob wanted a more stimulating vocation, such as medicine or dentistry. A counselor advised him to talk to practitioners in the field. His hometown doctor pointed out that he and the dentist across the street had the same car, house, and pool, but, on weekends, he had to work while the dentist played golf and enjoyed his family. Dentistry made sense but Bob was still undecided. His counselor at OSU told him he had to participate in school activities to expand his experience before applying to either medical or dental school. Most readers won’t remember the trampoline craze in the late ‘50s but in small towns across America trampoline centers opened up where you could buy 15 minutes on the tramp for a dollar. In high school, Bob had been a spring board diver on the swim team and used the trampoline to practice. He became very agile and the local trampoline center hired him to perform. He drew dozens of breathless teenagers, who eagerly forked over their dollar for a chance to defy gravity and perhaps break an arm. Now, in college, Bob used his circus-like skills to try out for the OSU Rally Squad. He quickly became its leader. OSU went to the Rose Bowl that year, against Michigan, and the Rally Squad (five girls and three guys) traveled to Los Angeles. Coming from a town of 8,000 people to perform in front of 105,000 fans was a high point for Bob. His brother in-law, a Buick executive, provided three convertibles for the Rally squad. Imagine, three guys, five girls, and three convertibles in L.A. over New Years! However, Bob had eyes only for Jaye. Their friendship had begun to warm up.

Bob was initially accepted to both medical and dental school, but thinking about his hometown physician’s advice and the cost of medical school, he chose dentistry. Of course, it turned out that dental school cost about three times more—but hey!

After freshman year of dental school, Jaye agreed to marry him. She had her secondary education teaching degree by then, so she supported them throughout Bob’s education.

On to Orthodontics

Bob’s road to orthodontics was not a straight one. He graduated from the University of Oregon Dental Health Science Center in 1969 during the Vietnam War era. Influenced by his internship in the Oregon Oral Surgery department under two ex-Navy Dental officers, Dr. Wilbur VanZille and Dr. John Paul Jarabak (brother of Dr. Joe Jarabak, Professor at Loyola), Dr. Varner joined the Navy. He was stationed at San Diego’s Balboa Naval Hospital as a dental intern earning $13,000 per year. Bob and Jaye thought they were millionaires.

After Balboa Hospital, Bob was assigned to a Naval ship in San Diego. Their daughter Andrea was four months old when Bob shipped out on a six-month cruise to the Asian Pacific, fixing teeth for sailors while the ship’s crew fixed their destroyers. It wasn’t all work—the ship’s Captain asked Bob to form a golf team, which won the 11th Naval District championship.

Because of his internship at Oregon, Bob assumed he would go into oral surgery when discharged. However, the Chief Dental Officer on board ship was an oral surgeon who lamented hospital politics in which ENT doctors were fighting against hospital privileges for oral surgeons. Jaye therefore encouraged him to consider orthodontics, as she had liked her childhood orthodontist, Dr. Paul Kline (co-inventor of Alastiks). While home on leave, Bob paid a visit to Dr. Ernie Hickson, chair of the Oregon orthodontic program, who encouraged him to apply for the next year’s class. He applied and was accepted by the new chair, Dr. Doug Buck (Dr. Hickson had died in an automobile crash).

Bob praises the Oregon program for its strong clinical emphasis. Instructors Drs. Larry Kerr, Paul Kline, and Cy O’Brien insisted on clinical excellence. His three classmates were Dr. John Lohse, who bought Dr. Tom Pitts’ first Reno practice, Dr. Surang Sombuntham, who returned to her native Thailand, and Dr. Bruce Fiske, now in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Bob and Jaye decided to settle in Roseburg. The opportunity seemed very good and Roseburg turned out to be a wonderful place to live and practice. It has also become a home to daughter, Andrea, now a physician. Before assuming his PCSO duties, Jaye and Bob contributed much of their time to their church, teaching and serving on committees and boards, "wherever they needed us," Bob says.

Dr. Kline continued to be a mentor after Bob’s orthodontic residency. He insisted that Bob take proper patient records from the very start so that he would be in a position to take the American Board. Bob took the exam in 1982, putting down his cases next to Don Joondeph and Manny Wasserman, whose cases all looked perfect. Bob was the first graduate from the University of Oregon to pass the ABO.

Bob wanted to do better. He had heard that Dr. Ron Roth was forming a two-year study club and joined the first class. He was surprised to sit next to Joe Jarabak, who had been Ron’s teacher! Although retired, Dr. Jarabak was fascinated with Ron’s teachings and sat through the whole course. Bob says Dr. Jarabak’s knowledge was truly amazing and that Ron’s comprehensive orthodontic course was the best training he ever received. Bob continued working with Ron for 15 years as part of an orthognathic surgery study club.

Bob also became active in association service in the Oregon State Society of Orthodontists. During his term as president of the OSSO, the Oregon Dental Practice Act was revised and he and his colleagues were able to write Oregon’s rules governing orthodontic assistants. This has proven to be an excellent model of extended duty regulatory policy. PCSO Board member and good friend, Dr. Dale Rhoney, saw his chance, and persuaded Bob to follow up his Component leadership with a place on the PCSO Board. Bob still seems a little surprised that he is now president of the Society.

I asked Bob what message he could give to the young orthodontist in the PCSO. Here is his answer:

"There are three parts to an orthodontist’s life: practice, personal, and spiritual. Like any part of a body, all three need regular exercise. You can’t concentrate on one when the other is broken.

Look at successful practices to find successful systems. You don’t need to invent everything, but strive to establish successful systems from the start.

Treat with kindness and empathy: your family, staff, patients, and others you meet. Treat each patient as you would a family member.

These things will bring success, both personally and financially."

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