Spring 2000 Portrait of a Professional

The Early Years

Dr. Richard P. Ferguson is an orthodontist who has had many experiences in his long professional career, as well as outside of the dental arena. He was born on August 1,1925, in Springfield, Ohio, the ninth child of Wallace and Bessie Thompson Ferguson. Richard was the youngest child in the family and had three brothers and five sisters.

Living near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, Richard’s first ambition was to become a pilot. After graduating from Springfield High School, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, and spent two and a half years there, and three years in the Reserves. His goal of flying was thwarted however, due to the military restrictions and quotas in existence at that time. After completing his tour of duty, Richard attended Ohio State University from 1947-1949 and Central State College in Wilberforce, Ohio from 1949-1950.

Dr. Ferguson first became interested in dentistry because as a child he had experienced dentistry without anesthetics, and he wanted to deliver dental care to patients in a pain-free manner. He enrolled at Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry in Nashville, Tennessee, and graduated in 1954 with many honors and awards. Richard was 1 of 12 senior dental students selected, nationwide, to participate in the Air Force Rotating Internship program. He did this training at Valley Forge Army Hospital in Pennsylvania from 1954-1955.

Military Service

His first assignment with the Air Force was at Westover AFB in Massachusetts. He had planned to leave military service after this assignment and begin practice in Connecticut. However, he encountered more military bureaucracy, and was informed that the Air Force required an additional year of service that he had not anticipated.

Richard then decided to extend his military career. He received training as an oral surgeon and became Chief of Oral Surgery at USAF hospitals in England from 1959-1962 and at Castle AFB in California from 1962-1968. It was at Castle AFB that he made the decision to apply to the graduate orthodontics program at the University of Washington, fulfilling another long-standing ambition. He felt that children needed the most help and wanted to be of assistance in that regard. Richard related to me how it was necessary to go through the military bureaucracy yet again in order to be able to attend orthodontic graduate school after his acceptance from the University of Washington. Finally getting approval, he was able to enter the program and received his MSD degree in 1970.

Upon completion of the graduate orthodontic program, he was assigned to the USAF Europe Hospital in Weisbaden, Germany, and served as Chief of the Department of Orthodontics and Senior Consultant to the Surgeon General, USAFE. Richard retired from the USAF on November 1, 1973, with the rank of Colonel, the only African-American in the USAF dental corps with that rank, at that time.

Having previously promised the then orthodontic department chair, Dr. Richard Riedel, that he would return to the Seattle area to assist in teaching, (and feeling that the Puget Sound area came closest to a desirable place to live) Richard opened a private practice in Seattle that year. He also began several years of teaching in the Orthodontic and Pedo-Ortho Departments.

Organized Dentistry

Richard felt a tremendous responsibility to repay his debt to those civilian colleagues in the American Dental Association who had lobbied in order to establish parity in rank and pay between military dentists and civilian physicians. Richard proceeded to become involved with organized dentistry in a very "big way." He has served in virtually every capacity in dental associations, at both the local and state level. He was President of the Seattle-King County Dental Society from 1985-1986 and President of the Washington State Dental Association from 1995-1996. For several years he served on the Washington State Dental Disciplinary Board, as Chairman for a time, and has been active on committees within the American Dental Association.

In addition, Richard has been very active with the project Smilemobile, a mobile dental unit that travels around Washington state, giving local dentists an opportunity to deliver needed dental care to children who have limited access to that care. He has served the American Association of Orthodontics as Chair of the Council on Membership, Ethics and Judicial Concerns. Presently, he is President of the Washington State Society of Orthodontists. He has received much satisfaction from participating in the activities of organized dentistry, and feels that the benefit of having a pre-established retirement income from the military has given him time to devote to community activities.

Personal Activities

Dr. Ferguson described how he met his wife, Phyllis, during the time that he was attending dental school at Meharry. He had noticed her in a local restaurant and was immediately "smitten," telling a classmate, "I could marry that young lady," despite the fact that he didn’t know her name or who she was. At that time, one simply did not approach a young woman to ask for a date (this would certainly have resulted in being rebuffed), so he needed to find someone to introduce him to Phyllis. It was a friend of Richard’s, who was also a classmate of Phyllis’s at Howard University (where she received a BS in psychology) who introduced the couple. Neither of them imagined, upon that first meeting, that a relationship would develop, eventually culminating in marriage.

Phyllis had done graduate work in early childhood education at the Merrill-Palmer Institute in Detroit, and was a teacher in the Children’s School at nearby Fisk University in Nashville. They were married September 13, 1952, and today have four children. Norman, the only son and the oldest, lives in Colorado and works as a ski technician and in computers. Kay lives in Seattle and is Business Manager at her father’s orthodontic practice. Jocelyn is Special Events Manager at the Oakland Museum of California, and Jennifer, also living in Seattle, is a professional dancer who has danced with various companies in the United States and Europe. She currently teaches dance in the Seattle area.

Over the years, Richard has been active as a Scoutmaster, PTA president, in University Kiwanis and in other organizations. At this time, both Richard and Phyllis devote much of their time to activities connected to the United Methodist Church. Richard was awarded The Bishop’s Award by Bishop Calvin McConnell for his dedicated work with the Smile-mobile program. Phyllis is the elected Lay Leader of the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference, and is head of the conference’s delegation to the General Conference in Cleveland in May 2000. They are both members of the Jubilate Choir, which has traveled to South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe in 1992. It was in Zimbabwe that they became involved with Africa University, which is supported, in part, by the United Methodist Church. Richard became interested in working to establish a dental school at Africa University, in conjunction with plans to begin a medical school.

In 1995, he and Phyllis traveled to Dakar, Senegal, to attend the Africa/African-American Health Summit. This organization’s goal is to upgrade the professions of Sub-Sahara, Africa. Richard found it imperative, given the extreme shortage of dental professionals, that preventive dentistry with the use of fluorides be promulgated in the area. This will be essential to managing the ravages of uncontrolled dental disease.

Dr. Ferguson’s numerous activities illustrate his dedication to the dental profession, as well as to the general community; and he is typically modest about his many accomplishments. He feels that dental professionals have much to learn, and that the increased utilization of ancillary team members will be critical to the delivery of excellent dental care (especially in light of the decline in numbers of dentists in the future). Nonetheless, he believes that the quality of orthodontic care is something that must be maintained, and he feels this will require the active hands-on effort of orthodontists. In this way, the interest of the patient can be protected in an era of HMOs and managed care. Dr. Ferguson looks forward to spending more time enjoying his beloved sports of hunting and fishing, but he still enjoys practicing orthodontics and associating with his professional colleagues. Without a doubt, Dr. Ferguson’s ongoing career has been exemplary in every way.

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