Lasting Impressions | Summer 2016

legacy leadership of 16 x NSU LASTING IMPRESSIONS A fter running a dental practice in Fort Lauderdale for 30 years, Robert Uchin, D.D.S., planned to retire, but not from the profession. “I was getting further along in my age, and then they were opening a dental school right in my backyard,” he said. “I could go full time, teach at a university, and I didn’t have to relocate.” That was 1997, and the opportunity would be the first new dental school in the United States in 25 years and the first private dental col- lege established in Florida. “I had been in Fort Lauderdale since 1960, and I knew the community and political atmosphere, especially when it came to the dental community,” he explained. “That was my value to Dr. (Seymour) Oliet, who was the founding dean of Nova Southeastern University’s College of Dental Medicine.” The same year the dental school was founded, Uchin joined the university full time. Five years later, Oliet stepped down and Uchin BY MICHELLE F. SOLOMON legacy of