Dennis Ronald Stevens

Dennis Stevens, known affectionately as 'Steve' to his friends, died in Weymouth Community Hospital in May 2002 after a long illness.

Steve was awarded his degree in dental surgery at Bristol University in 1939 and immediately entered the Army Dental Corps.

He served in France and was evacuated through Dunkirk when France fell. His demobilisation took place in 1946 and allowed him to join his father's long established dental practice in Dorchester in Dorset.

It was here that he became a tireless worker, until his retirement, supporting local dental surgeons through his activities in the BDA.

His ability on the administrative side of dentistry was matched by his success in general dental practice... he was a man whose personality and standard of dental surgery earned him the respect of his patients and colleagues alike.

Steve was secretary to the Weymouth Dorchester and District Section of the BDA for ten years until he was elected chairman. Besides this, he was a member of the old Executive Council, the Family Practitioner's Committee, the Local Dental Council, when he was secretary form 1948 until 1956, and he was on the Wessex Branch Council of the BDA, when he became one of the panel of practitioners who served the Dental Services Committee.

His ability on the administrative side of dentistry was matched by his success in general dental practice. He was a man whose personality and standard of dental surgery earned him the respect of his patients and colleagues alike. His skill in dental surgery won him the appointment as dental surgeon to the Dorset County Hospital, Dorchester, a post he held for thirty years.

Besides being a Mason, Steve had many other interests. He was a very active member of the Dorchester/Bayeux Twinning Society and he loved gardening and DIY work.

Steve was a loving husband to his wife Marjorie and to his children, Christopher, Cheryl and Hillary. He was a true and loyal person to all those who were privileged to know him as a friend. He was a gentleman.

Brian Harding

Vaughan Richard Montague Hilliard

Vaughan Hilliard died on 14th May 2002 from advanced non-smoking-related lung cancer. He had been increasingly unwell for many months and the cancer was only discovered recently. He was 52.

Vaughan was the son of an international chemical engineer who was also an authority on champagne. From his mother he acquired an immense knowledge and love of fine food and cooking. From a very early age Vaughan developed a passion for France and skiing.

He was brought up in Dulwich where he attended and thrived at the local Prep School, however he found life at City of London School highly competitive and sought peace and freedom in long distance walking and cycling, a love that he maintained, thinking nothing of cycling across Spain and France. He participated in Denplan charity rides from Tunbridge to Paris.

Vaughan trained at UCH where he made many life long friendships and while working as resident dental house officer met his future wife Rosemary who was the SRN attached to the dental hospital.

He rapidly became an enthusiastic and skilled oral surgeon but found hospital life too restrictive. He joined a general practice in Bromley, moving to Battle when he married Rosemary. He spent the last 21 years in a large partnership in St Leonards (Hastings).

Vaughan was a big character with a big heart and an enormous sense of fun, any one who met him was enriched by the experience, his laugh will echo in their minds always.

He was an active member of the Hastings and Bexhill section of the BDA being the treasurer for many years and chairman in 1984. In the early 90's he lead his practice in a highly successful Denplan conversion.

His patients and colleagues held him in high regard. The enormous piles of letters that were received when he became too ill to practise and following his death being most touching.

The expanding family lived in a number of interesting houses in the Hastings area, including a mediaeval brothel, a monastery, a small farm where the family were nearly self sufficient and latterly a Regency manor house. Vaughan thoroughly enjoyed practice and had no intention of retiring early. His other great loves in life were his cars and motorcycles, building a replica Jaguar which, like so many things including life itself, he never finished!

He derived great joy from his wife Rosemary and his sons Matthew and Richard who will miss him greatly.

Vaughan was a big character with a big heart and an enormous sense of fun, any one who met him was enriched by the experience, his laugh will echo in their minds always.

Edward J. D. Fielder

Death notice

Desmond Francis Keane died at the age of 81 on 24 March 2002 after a long illness. Desmond qualified from Guys' hospital in 1957 and spent the bulk of his career in Wolverhampton. He retired in 1985.

Huia Masters Pickard

Professor Huia Masters Pickard (Pick) died on 17th July 2002, aged 93 years old. He was born in New Zealand and was brought to England while he was still very young. He studied dentistry at the Royal Dental Hospital (RDH) Leicester Square, starting in 1927 and then qualified in medicine at Charing Cross Hospital. After house jobs at RDH he entered practice working with Wilfred Fish. His war years were spent in the UK and North Africa as a medical officer with the Royal Army Medical Corps where he undertook General Medicine and Surgical work but was latterly a trainee surgical specialist.

After the 2nd World War Pick returned to dentistry spending half his week teaching conservative dentistry at RDH and half in private practice in Harley Street. In 1947 he completed his FDS by examination and in 1954 took a full time lecturer's post at RDH, being promoted to reader in 1956 and Professor of Conservative Dentistry in 1966. He retired in 1974.

He hoped his young teaching staff would have the knowledge and training to teach across the disciplines.

Pick had certain views on dentistry and and teaching that he held dear. He was totally committed to the part-time teacher who also worked in practice and to the concept of restorative dentistry; indeed he was a founder member and first president of the British Society of Restorative Dentistry. He divided his restorative department into three divisions: conservative dentistry, fixed and removable prosthodontics, and complete dentures. He wanted to see young hospital dentists with a broad training in each area and hoped his young teaching staff would have the knowledge and training to teach across the disciplines. Some of his colleagues at the time were slow in grasping these concepts but in retirement he saw his ideas put into practice in many dental schools.

His textbook; A Manual of Operative Dentistry, was first published in 1961 and after producing five editions himself, he asked two new authors to help him completely rewrite and update the text.

Pick was an excellent clinician, a wonderful teacher and a man with strong and progressive views about how dentistry should be taught and practiced. He was the first to admit he was a poor administrator and perhaps this is one reason why he fell in love with and married Daffy, who could organise anything – including him. He was very proud of their two daughters, and his grandchildren.

Edwina Kidd and Bernard Smith

Ian David Poplett

The passing of Ian Poplett, at his home in Whitwell on 13 April 2002 will be deeply felt at local, national and international level. The loss of this exceptional man will also be acutely felt by his myriad of friends throughout the country whose lives he has enriched in so many ways. He was born in Byfleet, Surrey on 28 December 1941, but spent his early years in Blackheath, attending Colfes Grammar School before entering London University's Kings College to study dentistry. He qualified from Kings College Hospital in 1965 after a notable student career.

He moved to the Isle of Wight with his wife Carol in 1966 to work in the practice of Farouk Shamash in Ryde. After a few years, and wishing to develop his own practice, he moved to Ventnor, where he was eventually joined by Roy Burrows, another King's graduate. To pursue further specialisation and development he then created a purpose built private practice alongside his farmhouse home in the village of Whitwell, where he worked single handed. His vision and creativity led to Whitwell Dental Practice being nominated for prestigious national awards. It was here that he produced a video which gave detailed visual instructions to patients on homecare techniques for oral hygiene – this was distributed nationally.

In 1997, at the age of 55, the pressure of his wide spectrum of activities in dentistry led him to move to Wootton Bridge where he designed and set up a new practice with his partner Guy de Belder, while continuing with his active involvement in the British Society of Periodontology, the British Society for Occlusal Studies and the Association of Dental Implantology. For the past four years he and Guy de Belder had carried out weekly demonstrations at the practice for the students at Kings, using video conferencing. Such has been the success of this project, that it has led to the development of postgraduate teaching for dental practitioners and their teams in their practices across the country. The launch of this programme took place from The Royal Society of Medicine in London only a few weeks before his death.

Ian's proudest achievement came when he was elected to the position of secretary general (Europe) of the International College of Dentists

In 1999, his commitment to the provision of in-practice CPD for practitioners led to the formation of DMP Development, and the establishment of a network of top quality practices across the country offering a variety of courses. During all of this Ian also managed to serve the profession with distinction on the Isle of Wight. He was, for many years, associate specialist in oral surgery at St Mary's Hospital, founded a periodontal study group, and took the chair and other positions in the BDA Section. Ian's proudest achievement in dentistry however, came quite recently when he was elected to the position of secretary general (Europe) of the International College of Dentists, a great honour for a general practitioner,and with wide ranging responsibilities for the organisation throughout Europe.

He enjoyed playing golf, walking, and keeping geese and special breeds of chickens at Whitwell Farm. Family holidays were precious to him and in recent years, with the children grown, he and his wife Carol were able to travel more together. He was a bon viveur, thoroughly enjoying his food and wine - of which he was knowledgeable. He was also a great raconteur, possessing a wicked range of accents! This man of so many parts who touched so many lives will be deeply and sorely missed. He is survived by his beloved wife Carol, daughters Nicky and Jo, son Matt and grandsons Ben and Tom, a family he loved and of which he was very proud, as they were of him.

Alan Scaplehorn