Spencer N. Frankl and Harold Turner to Be Honored
Disability Awareness Night at Fenway on June 7 will recognize two former SDM faculty members
Disability Awareness Night (DAN), which returns to Fenway Park this Saturday, June 7, will honor Harold Turner (SDM’71), a retired associate professor at BU’s Goldman School of Dental Medicine, and the late SDM Dean Spencer N. Frankl for their work in special care dentistry.
DAN was launched by Exceptional Parent Magazine to recognize people whose efforts have improved the lives of the 54 million Americans with disabilities. Turner and Spencer will be honored at the ceremony with the magazine’s Maxwell J. Schleifer Distinguished Service Award, sponsored by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance and its SpecialCare Program. DAN, which began in 2002 with the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, now includes over 40 Major and Minor League Baseball clubs across the country.
Turner earned a certificate in pedodontics and anesthesiology from SDM and was an associate professor of pedodontics. He was also affiliated with the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., Memorial Hospital, Boston Floating Hospital, University Hospital, Forsyth Dental Center, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, and Beth Israel Hospital. Finally, he specialized in dentistry for children and the handicapped at Leonard Morse Hospital.
In 1972, Turner received the Man of the Year Award from the Greater Boston Retarded Citizens Association, and in 2003 a Points of Light Award for Teaching and Advocacy of Persons with Special Needs, presented by the governor of Florida.
Spencer N. Frankl was recruited as an associate professor in 1964 by SDM’s founding dean, Henry M. Goldman. In 1977, he became dean, a position he held until his death last October. Frankl was the longest serving dean of any dental school in the United States.
SDM is ranked among the top 10 in National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funding, and in 2001, the school received a $10 million grant from NIH to set up the Center for Research to Evaluate and Eliminate Dental Disparities. Frankl helped to build several centers around Boston to provide dental education for underprivileged students. He also acquired funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to establish the New England Dental Access Project, which seeks to increase the recruitment and training of underrepresented minority and low-income students.
Davide Nardi can be reached at dnardi@bu.edu.
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