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The UTHSC College of Dentistry to Unveil Bronze Bust Honoring Alumnus and Former Gov. Winfield Dunn

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Sculpture Will Have Prominent Place in Lobby of Namesake Dental Building

When the College of Dentistry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center needed to raise money to update its building and equipment roughly a decade ago, former Gov. Winfield C. Dunn, a 1955 graduate of the college, stepped up.

He served as an honorary chairman of the college’s capital campaign, along with campaign chair Philip Wenk, DDS ’77, president and CEO of Delta Dental of Tennessee. That campaign raised more than $19 million to support scholarships, faculty enrichment, research efforts and renovations to the building at 875 Union Avenuethat opened in 1977 and carries Gov. Dunn’s name.

On Monday, Aug. 15, Gov. Dunn will be honored by the UTHSC College of Dentistry for all his support over the years. A bronze bust of the former governor will be unveiled and permanently installed in the lobby of the Dunn Dental Building. The event begins with a tour of the building at 12:30 p.m., followed by the unveiling ceremony at 1:30 p.m., and a reception at 2 p.m. Gov. Dunn and his wife, Betty, are expected to attend.

“Former Gov. Dunn has been a great friend to the UTHSC College of Dentistry,” said Timothy L. Hottel, DDS, MS, MBA, dean of the college. “We are proud that he is an alumnus, and grateful for all he has done to help us educate generations of dentists who care for the people of Tennessee.”

Dr. Hottel said the bust is a fitting tribute to Gov. Dunn’s outstanding courage, leadership and stewardship. It is also a reminder to all who enter the building of the college’s rich history and remarkable alumni.

The bust is the work of Maddie Singer, who is director of anaplastology, an instructor in the college’s Department of Prosthodontics and works with the Advanced Prosthodontics Program. As an anaplastologist, Singer makes custom prostheses to restore the normal appearance of patients who have malformed, disfigured or missing parts of the face or body.

She noticed that there was no sculpture of Gov. Dunn in the building, even though the building is named for him. She proposed doing the bust, and was commissioned to create the sculpture that was cast in bronze.

Singer is also producing a bust of Dr. Wenk that will be displayed in the new dentistry building, which is soon to begin construction on campus.

The UTHSC College of Dentistry was founded in 1878, making it the oldest dental college in the South, and the third-oldest public college of dentistry in the United States. Roughly 85 percent of the dentists practicing in Tennessee are graduates of the college, as are a significant portion of the dentists practicing in Arkansas.