Fall 2000 Portrait of a Professional

The Early Years

George Payne was born in Jerome, Ariz., a booming mining town, on April 16, 1930. When George was four, the Payne family moved to East Los Angeles, Calif., where his father was principal in a Hispanic school.

George Payne's father was at times a teacher, principal, and supervisor. All of which Dr. Payne has been for me. Well, maybe not a principal, but he was one of my favorite professors at UCSF in the late '60s. George taught us bio-mechanics, soldering, wire bending, band fabrication, welding, retainer fabrication, model trimming-all the basics of our work. He also supervised patient treatment in the clinic.

The Payne family moved to East Los Angeles during the Depression, and the family felt fortunate that Mr. Payne had a good job. He was a WWI veteran, and took out a vet loan to build their first home for $5,000. George was raised in a diverse community of Caucasian, Hispanic, and Japanese-American families. When he was in the eighth grade, the Japanese-American students, one of whom was class president, were sent with their families to a concentration camp. George remembers with outrage that his father was booed at a public meeting when he criticized the government's actions.

The high school that George attended had no advanced placement classes, so a family friend taught him chemistry after school hours, and this proved to be valuable for him in college.

College

Since his father and his father's siblings had all attended Stanford, it was a bit of a shock that George applied to U.C. Berkeley. He did so because his goal was dental school, and U.C. had one. However, once at Cal, he changed his major to Entomology - having done the math, he'd realized dental school was not possible on his budget.

After graduation, the Korean War demanded his participation. He was assigned to be an Assistant Battalion Surgeon to the 23rd Infantry Regiment. The war was not kind to him. Many close friends were killed, and George contracted encephalitis, returning to college as a disabled veteran. The opportunity to have a government-sponsored education put dentistry back in the picture. George returned to Berkeley where he met his future wife Marilyn in a Zoology class. She was a pre-dental hygiene student. After completing his pre-dental requirements, George was accepted to UCSF Dental School, and Marilyn attended the UCSF Dental Hygiene program.

Dental School

George and Marilyn married and lived in city-sponsored housing at Sunnydale in San Francisco, close to what is now 3Com Park (formerly Candlestick Park). This was way before the ballpark, and the rent was $30/month.

George was very interested in orthodontics, inspired by Cecil Steiner and Bob Gawley, orthodontists near his L.A. home whom his family had consulted for help with George's malocclusion.

UCSF had an honors orthodontic program, Curriculum II, for promising dental students who were chosen at the end of the freshman year. This three-year ortho program ran in conjunction with the dental curriculum. To provide time for the orthodontic lectures and clinic, ortho students were excused from prosthetics and crown and bridge requirements. Curriculum II continued until 1969.

The most demanding course for freshman dental students was the prosthetics class taught by Dr. George Hughes. It was considered a testing ground for the orthodontic candidates.

Orthodontics-Curriculum II

George was accepted into the program. Wendell Wylie was Chair, and the faculty included George Hahn, Richard Railsback, Rodney Mathews, Gene West, Jack Smithers, and Norm Snyder. Cecil Steiner was a part-time lecturer. Cephalometrics was new, and Dr. Wylie's research on this subject was considered to be some of the best. Dr. Wylie was also editor of the Angle Orthodontist and Associate Dean of the Dental School.

George and Marilyn's oldest son, Warren, was born during this period.

His class included Neal Wells, Bob Molthen, Paul Peppard, Bob Ruhe, and Tom Moore. In the debate about extraction and occlusion, Tom laid out the plaster of 50 consecutive extraction cases, all of which met the standards of the "Occlusionists."

After Graduation

George was invited to join the faculty shortly after graduation, and taught part-time from 1959 to 1970. Fellow faculty member Dr. Mathews was a great friend, and mentored George on his research with monkeys, to evaluate the effects of Class II elastics. (AJO, 60:5, Nov. 1971). Gene West was also a close faculty friend, and they spent countless hours discussing curriculum and students. George says that Gene always had time to talk about orthodontics or any other topic you could name. Nowadays, George worries about orthodontic education: "What will happen to our specialty if we can't get the best applicants, and we can't find qualified department chairs or faculty?"

George and Marilyn considered starting a practice in Arizona or Los Angeles, but settled in Santa Rosa. Marilyn's family had a summer home on the Russian River and George was encouraged to start a practice in Santa Rosa by one of his dental school instructors who found the local orthodontists too busy, with backlogs of patients. Bill Ballard was a Santa Rosa orthodontist who was very generous in referring patients to help George get started. His practice turned a profit in the second month. (My first startup took 18 months to turn a profit!). George says his fellow Santa Rosa orthodontists were colleagues, not competitors. (I say let's promote that attitude. We will all have enough patients in the years to come, and there is benefit to learning together.)

Marilyn

Marilyn was the only child in a second-generation Alameda, Calif., family. Both parents worked, so as a teenager Marilyn was responsible for homemaking while going to school. That experience served the the Payne family well, as Marilyn ran the household and worked as a dental hygienist. To the distress of many patients, Marilyn retired from her hygiene practice this summer. She continues to pursue her her avocation as a volunteer food supervisor for a women's shelter.

Marilyn and George parented four children: Warren, a telecom engineer; Janice, a chief economics officer for a cell phone company; John, a molecular physiologist and professor in the Medical School at UC Davis; and Brian, a graduate of UCSF orthodontics, who has taken over the family practice.

Mentors

George sees his UCSF faculty experience as his first study club. He wore out several briefcases carrying models and patient records to UCSF to get ideas from faculty colleagues. Don Poulton and Rod Mathews would bring cases, articles, and research questions to the group at UCSF for consideration. His classmates formed a study group and then a mutual assistance group. They later adopted the mutual assistance format developed by Dr. Bob Hortin (Sunnyvale, Calif.) and his group.

Political life

Although Dr. Payne has served dentistry and orthodontics in many ways, two major highlights were his work as CDA President, and as AOOF Director for the PCSO. His involvement began when he was asked to be Secretary of the Redwood Empire Dental Society. There was no staff help so he put a second phone line in the office. During his four-year tenure, he was involved in two failed attempts to fluoridate Santa Rosa's water, participated in a project Head Start screening program, conducted a Dental Manpower Survey, and helped form a pro bono dental treatment system in the County.

From there, he went through the dental society chairs, became a CDA delegate, a CDA Board member and more.

In the '80s there was a liability insurance crisis when Chubb increased premiums 100%. Bill Paden was given about a hundred dollars by the PCSO to address the problem. After several meetings, CDA picked up the ball to form an independent insurance company (now TDIC). George says that his service on the Board of Directors of TDIC from 1982 to 1986 was one of his most enjoyable experiences.

TDIC now operates through CDA. It was the first insurance company to independently track orthodontic claims, which turn out to be not so different from general dentistry. It has recently celebrated its 20th anniversary.

From the CDA Executive Committee, he was elected to ADA Trustee. Since he left the ADA, he has served the AAOF. He has also worked locally on the Santa Rosa Junior College Foundation, chairing a committee that raised $2 million for the school's Health Sciences Building. Members of the Redwood Empire Dental Society contributed $300,000 to this fund.

Angle Society

In 1968, Rod Mathews and Gene West invited George to join the Angle Society. Bill Paden was Secretary at that time. Dr. Hahn, though not an officer, had unusual authority, being one of Dr. Angle's students. Whenever a prospective member presented a paper, Dr. Hahn would always ask the first question, which would set the tone.

During George's Angle Society presidential term, Dr. Hahn proposed that no members be considered who did not have the ABO. The other board members disagreed, but rather than vote down the proposal, they continued to table it.

ABO

George passed the ABO in 1968. Bill Ballard reviewed his cases, and Rod and Gene helped correct the written reports.

Advice for the New PCSO Member

"My advice to PCSO members is the same as I have always given. Don't be afraid of change. Many agonizing battles in dentistry are a result of close-mindedness.

Serve outside of the dental community as well as in it.

You can make an impact on your community. It gives you perspective on your own specialty.

The knowledge explosion is overwhelming, and you must read and learn outside of orthodontics. The computer is the answer to assimilating knowledge more efficiently.

And remember always, your family comes first."

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