Dr. J.H. White of Elizabeth City holds a record for continuous service in one town of which perhaps no other North Carolina dentist can boast. On Saturday night of last week he completed his 40th year of his stay in Elizabeth City, to which town he came immediately after completing his course in dentistry and began to practice his profession.
To speak of Dr. White as a success in the much overworked use of the term would be inadequate. The other members of the dental profession, however, voiced the sentiment of friends far and near, when they tendered him a turkey dinner at the Southern Hotel Saturday evening and with Dr. S.W. Gregory as spokesman told him something of the regard in which he is held in the profession and as a man.
Dr. White, to whom the dinner was entirely a surprise, was deeply appreciative of the tribute from his co-workers, said:
“Gentlemen, this occasion touches me very deeply. I regard this the highest honor I ever had paid me. For a man to have evidence of esteem and high regard from his co-laborers is certainly gratifying in the extreme. I do not use the word competitors, that is not the proper term in our relations with each other. I think co-laborers is much more fitting.
“The old adage ‘a prophet is not without honor save in his own country’ shows how unusual it is for a man to be honored by those who know him best and are thoroughly acquainted with all his short comings and faults.
“Of the 40 years I have practiced dentistry since I left college every bit of that work was done right here in this town. I believe I am the only man in this state who has practiced dentistry continuously for 40 years in one town, and has never practiced at all in any other place a day since graduation. “I could have a great deal to say about the many changes that I have seen taken place in the practice of dentistry in that time. But as they are so insignificant in comparison with the number that will doubtless take place in the next 40 years, I will not have a thing to say about that.
“I have been so rash as to think the time will come when people will look to the dentist for health and longevity more than to the physician—who will be resorted to then about as we do the preacher when there is scarcely any hope left. This perhaps you will regard as a startling statement.
“But, gentlemen, think of the wonderful changes you have seen take place in the public regard and esteem for dentistry in the last 10 years, or would it be more correct to say, in the last five years. If we advance as much in the next 25 years as we have in the last few, who will undertake to say what place we will not occupy in the science of prevention of disease and the prolongation of life. In the floral garden of hope there grows a balm for every woe.
“While I do not propose to be through with the fight yet, this progress will have to be largely through the efforts of the younger members of the profession.
“Gentlemen, I wish it were in my power to express to you, as I would like to, my high appreciation of your kind thoughtfulness for me, and the high compliment and honor you have conferred upon me tonight.
“It would not have been so remarkable for you to have laid flowers upon my grave, but to have handed them to me while I can see and enjoy them, and experience such evidence of your kindly feeling for me, indeed touches my heart.”
Besides Dr. White the dentists present were Dr. S.W. Gregory, Dr. M.M. Harris, Dr. H.S. Willey, and Dr. William Parker.
From the front page of The Daily Advance, Elizabeth City, N.C., Tuesday evening, April 17, 1923
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