I entered Kansas City University in 1961 on a full ride Victor Wilson Scholarship. In 1963, KCU became UMKC. I was a Biology major with dentistry as my career goal. Aside from my pre-dental courses such a comparative anatomy and organic chemistry, I gravitated toward the field biology courses such as plant ecology and ornithology. I graduated with a BS in Biology in 1965 and had applied to the UMKC School of Dentistry. Acceptance to dental school back then was not a given so as a back up the head of the Biology Dept. had lined me up a Masters Degree program at Kansas University. Well, I received my letter saying I had been accepted. At that time, no one had ever taken the Victor Wilson Scholarship into professional school. I wrote a letter to the scholarship committee saying I realized no one had ever done this, but that I was still in the same system and was there any chance my scholarship could carry into dental school. I didn’t hear anything for several weeks and thought it was a case of nothing ventured, nothing gained, but low and behold I received a letter from the faceless scholarship committee that said they had decided to extend my full ride scholarship into dental school. So I ended up with my scholarship covering four years four years of undergraduate and four years of dental school. My father died when I was in high school. So even with working part time during undergraduate school, I probably wouldn’t have been able to afford my UMKC education. For that I will be eternally grateful. I graduated from the UMKC Dental School in 1969 during the height of the Vietnam War. Graduating dentists were being drafted into the Army. Rather than wait to be drafted, I signed up for the U.S. Navy Dental Corps. For three years of the Vietnam War, I served overseas. I decided I liked the Navy and ended up serving for 30 years. At some point I realized I was interested in and adept at the leadership and management side of Navy dentistry. So during my career my assignments included serving as Executive Officer of the largest Navy Dental Command in the world in San Diego, overseeing over 600 healthcare professionals; Commanding Officer of the 21st Dental Company and Brigade Dental Officer on the Commanding General’s staff of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade; Commanding Officer of Naval Dental Center Pensacola responsible for the dental readiness of 45,000 sailors and Marines in a six state area of the SE United States and Head of Dental Operations on Navy Medical Department staff responsible for supporting all Naval and Marine Corps medical and dental facilities west of the Mississippi and across the Pacific. My personal awards include The Legion of Merit, three Meritorious Service Medals and two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals..
Since retiring from the Navy in 1998, I have been a volunteer naturalist and a birding teacher and field trip leader for several organizations including the Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve in La Jolla, CA, the San Diego Audubon Society and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
So my education and experiences at UMKC not only allowed me to have a successful career in the U.S. Navy Dental Corps, but it allowed me to return to my love of the natural world as a volunteer teacher and naturalist for the past 27 years. For that UMKC will always have a special place in my heart.
Gary Grantham
BS Biology ’65, DDS ’69