Russel Alexander Dixon

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Russel Alexander Dixon (February 24, 1898 – January 3, 1976) was the first African-American graduate and the first African American dean of Howard University College of Dentistry,[1] and the longest serving dean in dental education, with a 35 year tenure from 1931 to 1966.[1]

Early life and education

Russel A. Dixon was born on February 24, 1898 in Kansas City, Missouri to father, William James Dixon, and mother Lillie Belle Tribue Dixon.[2] He attended Hampton Institute from 1919 to 1920,[1] but switched to Ferris Institute, where he completed an undergraduate degree from 1920 to 1924.[2] In 1929 he received his Doctor of Dental Surgery (DSS) degree from Northwestern University Dental School.[2] Furthermore, in 1933 he became the first African American to earn a Masters of Science in Dentistry from Northwestern University.[1][2]

Howard University School of Dentistry

Dixon was appointed Acting Dean of Howard Dental School in 1931.[2] He was later appointed and remained dean until his retirement in 1966.[1] During his tenure he contributed greatly to the curriculum, enrolment requirements, academic preparation of the dental faculty, and planning of a new dental building.[2] He was committed to racial integration and gender equality in dental education.[2] By 1960, more than half of the US's 1,681 African American dentists were graduates of the Howard University College of Dentistry.[3]

Later career

Dixon served many administrative and academic positions throughout his career.[2][1] In 1949 he was appointed president of the PanAmerican Odontological Society and the National Dental Association.[2] He served on the Executive Council of the American Association of Dental Schools from 1953 to 1967.[2] In 1963, President John F. Kennedy appointed him to a four-year term as a member of the Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine.[1][2] He was a member of the Board of Overseers Visiting Committee of Harvard University for the Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine and of the Special Advisory Group of the Veterans Administration.[2]

Death

Dixon died after suffering a heart attack on January 3, 1976 at the age of 77 in Silver Spring, Maryland.[4][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Russell A. Dixon - 2017 - Question of the Month - Jim Crow Museum". www.ferris.edu. Retrieved 2022-02-15.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Dummett, Clifton O. (1989). "Medical History: A historical perspective of thirteen unheralded contributors to medicodental progress". Journal of the National Medical Association. 81 (3): 307–320. PMC 2571621. PMID 2651678.
  3. ^ Johnson, John H. (January 1960). "Howard Dental School: More than half of U.S. Negro dentists are its graduates". Ebony: 21.
  4. ^ "Dr. R. Dixon, Howard Dean Emeritus, Dies". Jet Magazine. January 22, 1976. p. 44. Retrieved February 25, 2022.



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