In Remembrance John Boag Houston 1936-2005

I first met John when I applied to the post graduate program in prosthodontics at UCLA. Like all universities, UCLA required an interview as part of the application process. John was practicing at LuCliff Place in Toronto, having recently retired as director of clinics at the University of Toronto Faculty of Dentistry. John conducted the interview with the same warmth and caring attitude that surrounded his entire life.

His life was rich, full with family, prosthodontics, snooker, reading and music. John’s musical friends, Murray Kronis and Chick Roberts, were there at the end, serenading him with songs to accompany him on his final journey.

After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1961, John was in private practice in Brooklin and Toronto, ON. In 1966, he began graduate studies at the University of Iowa. After graduating in 1968 with a Master’s degree, he went on to post graduate studies in Hamburg, Germany and Zurich, Switzerland. In 1969, he joined the dental faculty at UCLA as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Prosthodontics. In 1975, he became the Chair of Prosthetics at the University of Colorado and in 1976, he returned to the University of Toronto as Director of Clinics at the Faculty of Dentistry. In 1980, John embarked on the last phase of his career, which was in private practice in prosthodontics.

Our paths crossed again when I joined the executive of APO (Association of Prosthodontists of Ontario). Once again his mentoring warmth was evident. We worked together for many years and I followed him indirectly as the prosthodontic editor of Oral Health. John served as the Prosthodontic Editorial Board member from 1986-1994. His prosthodontic training both in North America and Europe, and later on his teaching commitment, instilled a penchant for detail. He believed, as other prosthodontic educators do, that the pen was mightier than the articulator. To that end he toiled to make the pages of this journal full of meaningful articles and developed a special ‘Clinical Case’ section. Amongst his peers, John became well-known for his expertise in removable prosthodontics and referrals flowed to LuCliff for that specialty within a specialty.

His family will miss him most of all but the many friends, professional colleagues and readers of Oral Health will also miss this warm and gentle human being.

With affection,

Bruce Glazer

Another teacher, along with Robert Locke, Blake McAdam, and Jimmy Cutler were guests in our Succot (booths) October.

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