EDWARDSVILLE – Southern Illinois University’s School of Dental Medicine (SDM) is celebrating its opening 50 years ago having welcomed its first class of 24 students on Sept. 11, 1972. SIU SDM was the first dental school to open outside of the Chicago area and helped fill the need for dentists in the central and southern Illinois regions. The SIU SDM was dedicated on Oct. 3, 1972, with an event welcoming the governor’s wife, state senators and representatives and area dentists to the Alton campus. At the dedication, the school’s first dean, Frank Sobkowski, DDS, remarked, “Because of the unusual opportunity extended to the faculty of this school and by virtue of the efforts of the graduates of our programs, this school will achieve national eminence and will provide leadership for the future." “I wish Dean Sobkowski could see the dental school as we have indeed grown and surpassed even his expectations,” said SIU SDM Interim Dean Duane Douglas,
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