Lasting Impressions | Summer 2017

COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE © 23 “The school was built, students came after a while, and we were a real dental school,” Stahl said. “Little by little, we had both students and patients. Now we are getting lots of patients and the brightest students in the country.” The draw for Stahl was that he could take part in building something that hadn’t existed previously. “All of the schools I had been with were there for 100 years before me, but this was a wonderful opportunity—a true experience,” he said. “I was coming to a brand-new place where there was no tradition. I wanted to leave my imprint.” Working with Oliet, Stahl helped build the foundations for the CDM by putting the students and faculty and staff members in place and earning accreditation from the Commission on Dental Accreditation. He worked on the nuts and bolts of starting a new school, such as financing, budget management, and getting facilities, such as the dental clinic, off the ground. Stahl also used his reputation and prestige to help recruit top faculty members, which were hard to come by because of a national shortage. “He was recognized in the dental profession,” said Robert Uchin, D.D.S., who served as the CDM’s dean from 2000 through 2013 and as one of its first administrators. “Whomever he called, he would get answers. He had lots of connections. He set a tone for the dental school and its search for excellence.” Stahl served as the CDM’s associate executive dean, as well as professor and chair of the periodontics depart- ment. In 2005, he decided to retire again. But, like his first retirement at NYU, it wasn’t successful. He moved into an adjunct professor position, driving from his home on Singer Island to NSU’s Fort Lauderdale/Davie Campus. He would have continued traversing Florida’s Turnpike, but a stroke sidelined his driving—but not his will to teach. Since his stroke a little over a year ago, about a dozen periodontics residents meet every two weeks in a social room at Stahl’s condominium building on Singer Island. There, he teaches the Pathology of Periodontal Disease and Histology of Healing. “I’m not sure if they come for me or the doughnuts,” said Stahl, who makes sure there are doughnuts and coffee for the students at each class. TRAILBLAZING YEARS Stahl’s dream of becoming a dentist began when he was growing up in Berlin, Germany. “I remember when I was 10 years old going into the University of Berlin to pick up a book. Once in that building, I knew that’s where I wanted to live,” he explained. His family moved to New York City after escaping Nazi Germany in 1939. Stahl spent more than six decades in the United States pioneering teaching methods and research in periodontology—the study of gums, bones, and other support- ing structures of teeth. Curious and brilliant, Stahl eventu- ally completed dental school at the University of Minnesota College of Dentistry in 1947. Two years later, he would add a master’s degree in histopathology—the study of the manifestations of diseases—from the University of Illinois. In 1950, he began a long career at NYU as an instructor in charge of research. Five years later, he became an assist- ant professor in the dental school’s Department of Periodon- tia and Oral Medicine. In 1978, he was named associate dean for academic affairs. “This man has truly amazed me,” said Stuart Hirsch, D.D.S., an associate dean at the NYU College of Dentistry. “He is an individual who is always curious. And he really believes in quality.” At NYU, Stahl began his trailblazing research in peri- odontics. He wanted to know how tissues, such as gums, would heal around teeth after dental work, as well as the impact gingivitis had on teeth. He was also curious about how bone in a patient’s mouth would react to dental implants. The goal was to make sure implants stayed in the mouth. Continued on next page