Gardner P.H. Foley Sr., who spent nearly 70 years chronicling the painful, historic, comic and more bizarre moments in dentistry, died of pneumonia May 11 at Sinai Hospital. The Roland Park resident was 95.
Considered the dean of America's dental historians, Mr. Foley had taught English at the University of Mississippi for a short time before coming to the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery at the University of Maryland Dental School in 1928.
He taught English to pre-dental students and, in 1942, was asked by J. Ben Robinson, the dean of the dental school, to teach dental history and literature. He retired in 1969 and was named professor emeritus.
During his years at the nation's first dental school -- it was founded in 1840 -- he filled several filing cabinets and thousands of note cards with such dental curiosities as:
The first reference to pulling teeth may be found in a letter from a court physician to an Assyrian king. Written on a clay tablet, it dates from between 722 B.C. and 609 B.C.
Modern dentistry was founded by Pierre Fauchard, a Frenchman, whose 1728 book established it as a medical science.
In his "Europe on $5.00 a Day," (1969) Arthur Frommer recommends a visit to a Roman flea market, where one can buy a second-hand toothbrush.
Chief White Eagle received the gift of a white diamond from Will Rogers. For the sake of safety, the chief decided to have the diamond used as a filling.
Basil M. Wilkerson invented the hydraulic dentist chair.
The definition of a dentist from "The Devil's Dictionary" written by Ambrose Bierce: "A prestidigitator who putting metal into your mouth pulls coins out of your pocket."
George Washington's dentures were made from hippopotamus tusk.
Mr. Foley once boasted that he had the only file on sex and dentistry. He would often say that he had been collecting dental history longer than "municipal water supplies had been fluoridated."
In 1972, he published a collection of facts drawn from his files and the columns he had written over the years for dental journals.
"Foley's Footnotes: A Treasury of Dentistry" has become a basic reference tool. He was working on another dental history book.
"He found a unique literary niche that could enlighten the world of dentistry and which he would pursue into his 96th year. He was still working on a book on dentistry as it appeared in literature when he passed away," said his son, Gardner P. Foley Jr. of Bala-Cynwyd, Pa.
