The Goldman School of Dental Medicine is celebrating its fortieth anniversary this year, and mention of that fact seldom goes by without mention of another — it’s also Dean Spencer Frankl’s twenty-fifth year at the helm of the school.

Spencer Frankl. Photo by Kent Dayton.

To celebrate that silver anniversary, more than $250,000 in gifts and pledges have been made so far toward the Spencer N. Frankl Chair in Dental Medicine. The fundraising campaign is led by two alumni faculty members — Zhimon Jacobson (SDM’81,’82) and Harold Levin (CAS’54, SDM’62).

“I’ve known Dr. Frankl for over twenty years,” says Jacobson, an associate professor at SDM. “I know him as a faculty member, as a friend — and he’s my patient. He’s been a mentor to thousands of students, residents, and faculty, and is one of the most respected deans of dental schools in the country. He is a true visionary. All of the programs he set into place ten to twenty years ago other universities are trying to imitate. He’s ahead of the curve all the time.”

Working on the campaign, Jacobson says, isn’t as difficult as it might be. “It has been easy fundraising for me as co-chair of this committee, because everybody loves him. Every person I approach, I get money,” he says with a laugh, “which is wonderful, but I know it’s very unusual.”

Founded as the country’s first graduate-only dental school, SDM has added a D.M.D. and other degree programs, as well as new departments and research areas. Faculty research has increased dramatically; SDM received almost $8 million in research support from the National Institutes of Health in the last fiscal year, among the highest amounts for dental schools.

Students and faculty have also long worked with community health programs, creating a model for dental schools nationally.

Harold Levin, a longtime professor of endodontics at SDM, has known Spencer Frankl since they were in graduate school — Levin at BU and Frankl at Tufts. Levin, who received his graduate degree from the School of Medicine, a year before the dental school officially began, says he got involved in the $2 million campaign to endow the chair “because there’s a need. Like all schools, even though we accomplish so much, we always need to accomplish more. The fundraising activity, even though it’s not a huge part of the income of the school, makes the school better; it gives the school the ability to excel. And it makes the students’ lives better.”

To contribute to the Spencer N. Frankl Chair in Dental Medicine, please contact SDM Development Officer Ivy Nagahiro at 617-638-4735 or inagahir@bu.edu.