Volume 8 • 2021 • Issue 3

The First Fork in the Road Also at age 12, Richard and his family moved to Charlottetown and when he changed schools, Richard joined his school band, where he played trombone. By the end of high school, he was deeply passionate about music. He realized he was at a fork in the road. Should he pursue a post-secondary degree in music or science? “I felt that I would have more options if I studied the sciences in my undergrad,” he says, so he went on to earn his BSc at the University of Prince Edward Island. When he graduated, he was unsure what his next step should be. He met with a professor at Dalhousie, who suggested Richard work as a research technician until he figured out what he wanted to pursue. He got a two-year term as a research technician with Dalhousie anatomy professor Dr. William Currie, and he also signed up for a few master’s level courses. Among his housemates in Halifax were a medical student and a dental student, and Richard visited the school of dentistry with his housemate Dr. Tom Hogan. “I quickly realized that this was what I wanted to do,” he says. “Working with my hands, working with biomaterials, waxes and cements. The combination of the art and science of dentistry in a health care profession was ideal for me and I knew that this was my future direction.” He’d come to another fork in the road: he chose dentistry. School Days At Dalhousie, Richard had the opportunity to work as a summer student under Dr. Derek Jones, an international leader in amalgam and dental materials. “A highlight was when we went to the IADR conference in Chicago to present Dr. Jones’ research in 1987,” he says. The next year, Richard won first place in the Dalhousie Table Clinics and had plans to present at the CDA/Dentsply Student Clinician Research Program in Alberta, but the death of his father cancelled the trip. At Dalhousie, Richard befriended Dr. Joanne Stewart, a fellow dental student and PEI native. “We were good friends, but she had plans to go back to PEI to practise and I didn’t have any intentions to go back to the Island,” he says. During his final year of dental school, Richard got a fateful phone call from Dr. Allen, his dentist from Sherwood. “He invited me to come work with him,” he says. “He said that if I came back, we’d have to move the practice out of his basement.” Another fork in the road presented itself. Richard and Dr. Allen met over supper in Halifax, and, by the end of the meal, an agreement to work together was made. Dr. Allen talked to Dr. Brian Barrett who worked with his father, Dr. Gerry Barrett, and Dr. Mike Connolly, a new Dalhousie grad, in an office on Belvedere Ave. Dr. Allen suggested they join up and build an addition to accommodate the practices. They all agreed and construction began in the spring. “Before I even graduated, the hole was dug to start construction,” says Richard. “Then I worked one summer in the basement with Bill, so I got the experience of working in the same small clinic that I’d first visited as a 12-year-old patient.” “When Richard Met Joanne” In September 1989, Dr. Allen and Richard moved into the new addition and that same month, Richard asked his former classmate Joanne on a date. “I asked her at one of the DAPEI meetings to go see the movie When Harry Met Sally ,” he says. “It was the first movie we ever saw together.” They married in 1992 and went on to have three children, He’d come to another fork in the road: he chose dentistry. “The combination of the art and science of dentistry was ideal for me and I knew that this was my future direction.” The 2018 DAPEI/CDA Convention Organizing Committee. (L. to r.) Dr. Michael Connolly, Dr. Dana Coles, Dr. Brian Barrett, Dr. Holden and Dr. Joanne Stewart. 10 | 2021 | Issue 3 CDA at W ork