Dr. Molly Fisher, class of 1966, receives her 50-year medallion from Dean John Featherstone during Alumni Weekend 2016.
By Terri Hunter-Davis
When Maurice Louis Green graduated from UC San Francisco in 1901, the young dentist was barely older than the 20-year-old school he had just attended. The first buildings on Mount Sutro were finished the year before, housing the School of Medicine, College of Pharmacy and College of Dentistry on what would become the Parnassus campus.
Maurice Louis Green, class of 1901
As the new century dawned, the young Dr. Green started practicing in Oakland — and began a remarkable legacy. He was the first of three generations — his son, Maurice Samuel Green, and his granddaughter, Molly Ann (Green) Fisher — of UCSF dentists.
There wasn’t a conscious effort to make dentistry the family business, Dr. Fisher said. In fact, the elder Dr. Green passed away the year his son entered dental school.
“My father greatly admired his father,” said Dr. Fisher — he certainly wasn’t averse to following in his footsteps. A bigger influence, though, may have been a familial tendency to enjoy tactile work.
“He was very hands-on, very inventive,” Dr. Fisher said of her father, who graduated from UCSF in 1941, served in the U.S. Navy during and immediately after World War II, and practiced dentistry in the South Pacific right after the war’s end. “And I also love working with my hands, doing all sorts of crafts.”
Maurice Samuel Green, class of 1941
But being exposed to the world of dentistry — in addition to her dentist father, Dr. Fisher’s mother, Rosemarie Marshall Green, was a 1935 UCSF grad in dental hygiene — seemed to have set the stage for Dr. Fisher, who was awarded her 50-year medallion at Alumni Weekend in April.
“I made up my mind early, by high school,” recalled Dr. Fisher. Although neither of her parents particularly steered her toward the field, to Dr. Fisher, “dentistry seemed like a good fit.”
After graduating from UCSF in 1966, she earned her master of science in pediatric dentistry at the University of Michigan. She later went on to practice in San Leandro and Livermore, retiring in 1994. Similarly, both her father and grandfather enjoyed long careers in dentistry.
The field has evolved dramatically since Maurice Louis Green became a dentist.
“There certainly have been lots of changes, even between me and when my father was practicing,” Dr. Fisher said. “He worked five and a half days a week, including Saturday. He did his own lab work.” Reliance on assistants has grown significantly.
Who becomes a dentist also has changed.
“There now are so many women in dentistry,” Dr. Fisher observed. “There were only two women in my class.”
It appears the Green dynasty in dentistry may have run its course. Dr. Fisher’s son is a computer scientist; her daughter is a nurse.
“She worked for me one summer as a dental assistant,” Dr. Fisher recalled. “She definitely was not headed in that direction,” although a life in the health professions did seem evident.
“She has all the right attributes,” Dr. Fisher said. And like her mother, grandfather and great-grandfather before her, “she enjoys service.”