Lasting Impressions | Fall 2015

NSU COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE © 37 for the NSU CDM not only has grown, but Meister will continue to be a part of the college’s future. The Dr. Mal- colm Meister Endowment Fund has been established with the intention of enhancing the educational experi- ence of the orthodontic residents. The fund is in “recognition and celebration of Dr. Meister’s contributions to the education and achieve- ments of countless orthodontic professionals through- out the world. The endowed fund will be used to support research, travel to professional meetings, and encour- age professional development for our residents,” said Abraham Lifshitz, D.D.S., M.S., professor and chairman of the CDM’s Department of Orthodontics and Dento- facial Orthopedics. “The fund named in his honor will continue Dr. Meis- ter’s legacy of residency education, support, and intellec- tual development,” said Linda C. Niessen, D.M.D., M.P.H., dean and professor at the CDM. FROM DENTISTRY TO THE LAW Building NSU’s orthodontics program came seven years after Meister sold the North Miami Beach practice he shared with his brother, Daniel, for 31 years. But in between retiring and becoming orthodontics program chairman, Meister earned another degree. At the age of 62, he decided to get his law degree. “I didn’t like retirement at all. I finally said I was going to do what I had wanted to do for a long time—I was going to law school,” said Meister, who started at NSU’s Shepard Broad College of Law in 1992. After he gradu- ated from law school, he worked in the Miami public defender’s office. That ended, he said, because soon after he started, NSU contacted him. So he went back to ortho- dontics—this time in higher education. “While I was chairman, dentists or orthodontists would ask me my opinion about contracts, and I would review them, so I did some of my law work that way,” he said. Today, Meister, a nationally known expert in dental jurisprudence, lectures on law, ethics, and medical errors at the College of Dental Medicine. Law and orthodontics share some of the same attri- butes, the professor and former practitioner explained. “I found orthodontics to be very challenging academi- cally,” he said. “It is a thinking man’s specialty. Ortho- dontics offers analytic challenges for the residents and professors alike. We deal with growth and development, biology, pathology, esthetics, etiology, treatment mech- anics, and the collision of disparate forces (malocclu- sion) that sometimes cannot be stabilized to achieve long-term stability.” At 85, he stays active in the world of educating future orthodontists because of the challenges of the specialty. “Nothing is cut-and-dried,” according to Meister, “but it is so satisfying because you’re dealing with aesthetics. It’s very creative.” The relationships Meister continues to build with stu- dents also keep him energized and involved at NSU. He said he still keeps in touch with many of his students who have now gone on to have successful practices of their own. “I have enduring relationships with students that have lasted many years. With residents who have graduated recently, I have developed the same kind of relationships,” he said. The Dr. Malcolm Meister Endowment Fund will remain a legacy to the “father” of the department of orthodontics at CDM. “I think that I did accomplish something and that I worked hard to help create a good program,” Meister said. Meister hopes the program and his teaching creates future orthodontists who excel in the craft of ortho- dontics, and are well-rounded individuals. “Graduates of the program are enjoying a challenging profession that is more passion than profession. I tell my students to dissect everything carefully. They challenge me, too. Each time I’m around my students, I learn something new,” he said. For more information on the Dr. Malcolm Meister Endowment Fund, contact Denise Goldson Rau at dgoldsonrau@nova.edu or at (954) 262-2163. u Malcolm Meister, opposite page and center, with dental students Ben Christman, left, and Kirk Bean, says that CDM students keep him energized and involved at NSU.