 And now, it's my distinct pleasure to call on my other partner, President-Elect Dr. Robert M. Lamb, who will present his address. Dr. Lamb has served with distinction as the region for Regency 6 and as an officer of the college. Not only has Robert served at the college at the highest level, but he has also served his commitment to the community in our country. He retired from the Air Force as a decorated colonel in 1995 and was in private practice as an oral surgeon in Edmond, Oklahoma. He has been recognized numerous times for his devoted service to others and to the profession. Please welcome the next President of the American College of Dentists, Dr. Robert Lamb. Greetings to Seniors, Guests, President Jones, Officers, Regents, Fellows, Candidates, and Friends of the American College. Hi, y'all. Welcome to Houston. Isn't it great to be in an in-person meeting? The last two convocations, the COVID cohorts were virtual and were done very well, but it's so great to see people in the flesh. I was born in Dallas, but I presently live in the state to the north. So I'm used to saying, y'all, many of you who are not from the south may not be familiar with that term. It can be very confusing. It is gender-neutral. Y'all can be singular or plural. All y'all is very inclusive. Over the last few years, many college initiatives were completed, including two major publications. The Ethics Report, The New Professionalism, spearheaded by Dr. David Chambers, and ACD, Our First Century. Profiles and prerogatives, a third publication is in progress, and is a collection of biographies of all the presidents of ACD, starting with John Consent. The Executive Office moved from Gaithersburg to historic downtown Lockville, Maryland. This building was dedicated on August 20, 2021, the 101st anniversary of the founding of the college. The Pierre Fouchard Academy's office is also in our building. You can see the legacy walkway. Our mission advancing excellence, ethics, professionalism, and leadership in dentistry comprises the first bricks in the walkway. These bricks can be sponsored by individuals, by sections, or by friends of dental schools. As both Dr. Connolly and Dr. Fiella said, you can order a brick with your name on it, honor someone, or memory of someone. You can obtain information about sponsoring a brick from the Executive Office or the gallery at this convocation. The funds will go to the ACD Foundation, which supports the educational mission of the college. Here's a picture of the library in our new office, and a balance over one of the windows. Let me tell you about our staff in Lockville. Susan Pittman is Director of Operations. She has been with the college for over seven years and does an outstanding job. I had the privilege of spending three days at Lockville in August watching Susan and the other staff members interact so smoothly. She has amazing grasp of details and a global perspective. This is the fifth meeting that she has planned. Her organizational skills are unbelievable. Erica Royal has been with the college for 16 years. Hers is the first smile that greets you when you call. If she doesn't know the answer, she will get it and get back with you. At the annual session, she is in charge of the gallery and the silent auction during the year Erica interfaces with sections. Stephen Frohlich is a recent hire, and he manages nominations. He has assisted on meeting preparation tasks and is doing an excellent job. The staff are all present at this meeting and will aid you in any way that they can. Let's have a round of applause for our staff. The American College Board of Directors is having a virtual spring board meeting in March to allow for strategic planning in April our normal spring board meeting time. This is the first year the board has participated in strategic planning in over 25 years. The planning will give us direction in the selection of a new executive director and future directors. The president of the ACD Board of Regents and the president of the ACD Foundation will continue to provide leadership to the executive office in the coming months until a search for the executive director has been accomplished. What is the farthest you've ever walked or run? I'm sure many of you are avid walkers or runners. Some have done marathons. Some may have walked part of all the Appalachian Trail. Some may have walked part of all of the Camino del Santiago or the way of St. Luke in Spain. It is a 500-mile journey over three mountain ranges. Now can you imagine pushing a person in a wheelchair total weight 250 pounds over that distance? That's what two lifelong friends did. Patrick Gray and Justin Schesek were born two days apart in a small town in Oregon. They attended the same church in school and were inseparable. At age 16, Justin developed a foot drop of his left leg and his muscle weakness progressed. It took 13 years, many exams, muscle biopsies, and neurologic tests to establish the diagnosis of multifocal acquired motor axillopathy. In 2012, Justin's family lived in San Diego and Patrick and his family lived in Idaho. Justin couldn't do a lot of things but he could operate a television remote. He was channel surfing one day and came across a Rick Steves program showing Northern Spain and they talked about the Camino del Santiago. Thousands of pilgrims complete all or portion of this journey annually, ending in the Cathedral del Santiago, Campostali, where the bones of the Apostle James were said to be buried. He thought this was the perfect guide trip. Justin recorded this show and the next time Patrick visited him, Justin showed this recording to Patrick. When Justin asked Patrick if he wanted to go on this 500 mile journey, Patrick said, I'll push you. When Patrick asked his boss for six weeks off the next summer and described the trip, the boss said he'd do everything he could to make this trip possible but Patrick needed to document this trip with a videographer. Patrick the boss said that there was too much hope in this adventure not to share. Patrick had a friend from college who was co-owner of a video agency. He contacted him and he agreed to video the journey. Justin sold his house in San Diego and his family moved to Idaho so he and Patrick could plan their trip and train. They needed to find an off-road wheelchair, lightweight but rugged enough to get over three mountain passes, hundreds of miles of cobblestone streets and rugged terrain. There are very few wheelchairs that fulfill these requirements. They found a three-wheel chair made from aircraft aluminum, mountain bike tires, disc brakes and shocks for a cost of $8,000. It's a Bob Stroller on steroids. It would take five months to custom build and that would give them two months to train with the wheelchair. So Patrick started training. Their journey started in France and proceeded across Northern Spain to Santiago de Compostola, a firefighter paramedic friend accompanying Patrick and Justin for the first 10 days of the pilgrimage. During the first day, they climbed the Pyrenees over a rocky, steep and muddy trail. On the second day, the whale broke on the front tire and as they described it, the Stroller became a rickshaw. The problem is trying to find a person who could weld aluminum. This takes a very special skill. Too hot and the aluminum melts and gaps open. After a long search, they finally found a man to weld it. They asked him if he could do it and he said come back tomorrow at 10 and they would see if he could. The Camino was a very long, arduous journey but there are times of rest and reflection. A longer journey, Patrick and Justin met many people who walked a part of the journey with them. In a cathedral in one village, two men, Richard and Joe, saw them and asked if they were Patrick and Justin and they said they were and the two men said they were from Boise, Idaho about 10 miles from where Justin and Patrick lived and they had been following the details of their journey. At the end of the Camino is Osobrero, a third mountain range on the pilgrimage. It is extremely steep and Justin and Patrick can consider bypassing this part of the Camino and taking the road. Richard and Joe said they wait for them in a village and help them make the climb. We'll get back to the story in a few minutes. We may or may not have disabilities but we have all been pushed or encouraged by somebody in a lifetime. I'm a second generation dentist. Some of you may be third or fourth generation dentists and some may be the first to graduate from college or family. But very few have made it on their own. Several have influenced my life positively. My dad was one. My father was one. He was an engineering student at the University of Texas. When World War II started my grandparents couldn't no longer afford for him to go to college. So he became an officer in the United States Army Air Corps which eventually became the United States Air Force. Many engineering students became meteorologists or weather officers. Dad was stationed at a B-17 base in England. When I was young and ignorant I said that was a tough job predicting weather in England. Fog in the morning, burning off by the afternoon. But dad said that's not where they're predicting the weather. It was to and from and over the German bomb targets. I kind of imagine how difficult that was to make these predictions with isobars and pilot reports. Meteorology has become such an exact science with satellites, predictions, predicting weather down the streets almost. In addition to the commanding officer dad would brief the pilots on their missions, prior to the missions regarding the weather they would encounter. The B-17 or flying fortress was a heavy bomber that dropped more bombs than any other US aircraft in World War II. Here's dad with the crew of a B-17 is a 10 man crew, a pilot, co-pilot, navigator, flight engineer, bombardier and five gunners. It would take up to 45 minutes for the B-17s to take off and form into formation. This was a defensive tactic. While they had fighter escorts for the first part of their mission, the fighters had to turn back when the fuel got low. By coincidence, one of dad's best friends was the dentist, Dr. Larry Kerr. Some of you more mature fellows, Dr. Slaughter, Dr. Reagan may recognize his name. After the war, Dr. Kerr became an oil surgeon and practicing in the cotton New York. He was ADA president for 1979 to 80 and a fellow of the college. Not all the war was tough. Here was dad at the officer's club. And I'm not sure what dad did to have this picture taken. He may have missed a weather prediction or lost a bet. Dad and Dr. Kerr were lifelong friends. Here's a photo of dad and Dr. Kerr at a bomb group reunion of the 390th bomb group at the museum in Tucson, Arizona, nearly 50 years after they served in England. Through Dr. Kerr, dad became interested in dentistry and after the war, using a GI bill, he completed his prerequisites. It was a 1949 graduate of Baylor College of Dentistry. He practiced general dentistry and was at ACD region of Regency 6 from 1985 to 89. I wanted to be a dentist from childhood. Mom and dad instilled a great work ethic into me. My first job was an usher at the Dallas Music Hall for summer musicals. Several friends worked there and our parents would drive a carpool of us across town about 6 p.m. and pick us up about 9.15 for us to make $2 a night. It probably cost him more in time and money. I was a lifeguard in high school and that was a pretty sweet job. Working on that tan, sitting on the stand for about 30 minutes, off 15 minutes, every once in a while having to rescue a child who thought they could swim better than they could. And as I started college, I thought I'd continue a lifeguard, but dad had different plans. He started lining up jobs for me through his Lions Clubs friends. After my freshman year, dad said, "'Mr. Thomas has a job for you. "'Mr. Thomas owned a moving company. "'I worked for Mr. Thomas two summers "'and two Christmas breaks. "'We would start work at 7.30 in the morning "'and work until the job was done, "'sometimes 3 or 4 in the afternoon, "'sometimes 10 or 11 at night or later, "'but always back to work the next morning at 7.30. "'There is no sleeping in if we finish late.'" And then dad said, "'Mr. Jessup has a job for you, "'working in a school book depository. "'Early in the summer we had unload trucks "'filling the warehouse with mountains "'of cartons of books, "'and the rest of the summer would fill "'school book orders "'for the different school districts in Texas. "'The Houston School District's order "'filled four tractor trailers. "'I later figured these jobs "'dave me incentive to study during the school year. "'Dad was sneaky like that. "'I was accepted in Baylor College of Dentistry "'and my senior year I was on an Air Force scholarship. "'And after graduation I completed "'a general practice residency "'at March Air Force Base in Riverside, California. "'My base dental surgeon and program director "'was Colonel Art Saxel. "'Colonel Saxel's social became chief "'for the United States Air Force Dental Corps, "'retiring as a major or two-star general. "'General Saxel pushed and encouraged me "'and that aided me in life and my Air Force career. "'The Dental Clinic at David Grant Medical Center "'at Travis Air Force Base in Northern California's "'name for General Saxel. "'I was stationed in the England Air Force Base "'for two years, a general dental officer, "'and then I was accepted into a Royal Maxwell "'Facial Surgery Residency "'at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center. "'Many of our staff attendings of our program "'pushed and encouraged me. "'Many of them were ACD fellows. "'From left to right, the late Bill Crune, Ed Brawley, "'Neil Glass and Mike Duffy are pictured here. "'Jim Baker also a fellow "'and many others contributed to my education. "'I served 14 active duty years "'at Air Force in six years in reserves. "'I was in private practice for 29 years "'at Edmond, Oklahoma. "'Early in private practice, I would attend dental meetings "'to me and snooze dentists, "'getting more out of an organization I was putting in. "'As I matured, I realized the purpose "'of being in an organization "'is to contribute more than you receive. "'Different people urged and encouraged me "'to get involved and help me "'as I participated in many organizations. "'Very few could do this on their own. "'Now back to Justin and Patrick. "'They continued their journey "'and arrived at the village where Joe and Richard "'were waiting for them in a cafe. "'Justin and Patrick ate and rested at the cafe "'and then stood, ready to depart for the last push. "'The whole cafe stood up, and 12 people, "'accompanied Justin and Patrick over Osaburo, "'the last mountain range. "'At one point, they even carried the wheelchair. "'Justin and Patrick at first "'resistant to accept help from strangers, "'but Justin said, if you deny someone "'the opportunity to help you, "'you deny them the joy of helping. "'After 35 days, they arrived at the Cathedral "'to El Santiago de Compostale, "'and their wives were waiting for them. "'So how does the story of Justin and Patrick "'and my story relate to the candidates for fellowship? "'You have been recognized for your "'compliment and dentistry, academics, "'military, civic, or church organizations. "'You're the top three to four percent dentistry. "'This afternoon, you'll become "'Fellows of the American College of Dentists. "'You'll be welcomed by many fellows "'into the college at your convocation. "'You have been nominated by "'and seconded by fellows of the college, "'but their names were stripped from your nomination. "'You have earned fellowship solely by your merits. "'I congratulate you in this recognition. "'Fellowship has a significant honor. "'You have displayed excellence, ethics, "'leadership, and professionalism. "'Now you have a large group of fellows "'welcoming you in the college, "'just as Justin and Patrick had a large group "'waiting for them to complete the Commino. "'Recognition does not come without responsibility. "'We expect you to find other dentists "'you can mentor, encourage, or push. "'You have colleagues who are active in dentistry "'or other leadership roles, "'who have not been recognized "'as a fellow of the American College. "'Nominate these dentists. "'Your nominator will guide you "'in the nomination process. "'Your section chair, your regent, "'or any officer, including me, "'or the executive office "'can aid you in the nomination. "'I want to thank those who have contributed "'to your success, your family, "'your mentors, and your teachers, "'all who have made you who you are, "'all who pushed you. "'As I talked this morning about those "'who pushed me, I hope you have thought "'about those who pushed you. "'If they are here, tell them thanks. "'If you're able to write them a letter "'over the next few days, do it. "'Now, who will you push? "'Who will you push? "'Thank you.'"