Heritage Snapshot: Part 159

Judson Klooster DDS, was Dean of Loma Linda University School of Dentistry from 1971 to 1994. He graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons School of Dentistry (which later became the University of the Pacific) in San Francisco in 1947. Starting in 1949 and continuing for 18 years (with a two-year stint in the Navy during the Korean Conflict, he operated a full-time solo practice in Escondido, California. His interest in academics, no doubt inherited from his father, a college administrator, was rekindled by M. Webster Prince, DDS, the first dean of Loma Linda University School of Dentistry. In 1967, after teaching at Loma Linda part time for 11 years, Charles Smith, DDS, second dean of the School, persuaded him to sell his thriving practice to join the School of Dentistry faculty full time. This he did in 1968 after earning a master’s degree in biomedical education through a program at Tulane University. Klooster directed the School’s growing continuing education activities from 1968 to 1972. In 1969 he became associate dean for academic affairs. During Klooster’s 23-year tenure as the School of Dentistry’s third dean, starting in 1971, both the faculty and student enrollment doubled in size and the school added several advanced education programs. Klooster expanded the Monument Valley program started by Dean Charles Smith and offered the students and their spouses a per diem and transportation allowance to make the Monument Valley experience available to all, giving impetus to students sharing the experience with their families. Facilities included four fully equipped, two-bedroom apartments. Children could be enrolled in the local elementary school, which was a part of the total hospital-dental clinic compound. Senior dental students eagerly sought placement in the Monument Valley program and, on looking back, would declare it a highlight of their dental education. The Christian environment of the School of Dentistry under Klooster’s leadership was noticed by many, including accreditation team members, judges, convention speakers, and visiting deans and faculty. To illustrate the fact that Christian values really do make Loma Linda’s learning environment unique, Dean Judson Klooster noted: “One recent visitor, a dean who has served on accreditation site visit committees to more than 20 dental schools, firmly believes that our school’s program, curriculum and learning environment are more fully matched to our unique mission than is true in any other dental school he has visited! He commented that each person he encountered—from the parking lot attendant to clinical staff and students randomly encountered in the School—treated him as someone very special, long before they realized who he might be. He observed this same quality of caring interaction between faculty and students as he walked through our halls and observed in our clinics, even before identifying himself as an invited visitor.”