John Patrick Walsh

Sir John Patrick Walsh (5 July 1911 – 22 August 2003) was an Australian–New Zealand dental academic. Born in Australia, Walsh trained as a dental mechanic, and then completed degrees in dentistry and medicine at the University of Melbourne. He was appointed Dean of New Zealand's dental school at the University of Otago in 1946, where he oversaw the introduction of training in paediatric dentistry, orthodontics and public health dentistry. Walsh campaigned for improved facilities at the dental school and the new building, opened in 1961, was named in his honour in 2001. He is remembered for his development of a high-speed dental drill and a successful campaign for fluoridation of the public water supply.

Early life and education Walsh was born on 5 July 1911 in Melbourne, Australia. Walsh was the eldest child of five children born to working-class parents Lillian, a cleaner, and John, who worked as a waiter, and who Walsh later said was an alcoholic and suffered from tuberculosis. He completed his School Certificate and most of his University Entrance through two years of night classes, but took two attempts to pass Latin. Walsh was unemployed when he completed his apprenticeship at 18, and proceeded to set up his own dental mechanic business from the family home, purchasing second-hand equipment and a bicycle for making deliveries. He tutored at the University of Melbourne, and worked as a registrar at the dental hospital and as a locum before enrolling to study medicine. Walsh commented publicly on the poor state of New Zealand dental health, describing the "denture face" that follows from early complete tooth extraction and poorly fitted dentures. The new dental school was officially opened in 1961. Many staff and students of the dental school joined the campaign to introduce fluoridation to improve public dental health. Walsh and other staff spoke at public meetings on the issue, against "vociferous opposition". Walsh patented a 60,000 rpm contra-angle dental handpiece with a turbine fed by compressed air in November 1950. Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi (1961) Honorary Doctor of Science of the University of Otago (1975) Fellow of the Australian College of Dental Surgeons (1967), and Fellow in Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England

In 2001, the University of Otago named the dental school building the Walsh Building in his honour.

In 1960, Walsh had a stroke, requiring extensive occupational therapy, which was followed by a dissecting aortic aneurysm in 1970. He died in Auckland in 2003, aged 92.

Publications

Walsh wrote three books and published sixty-two scholarly articles. The New Zealand Dental Journal reprinted his most significant papers (listed below) in a 1972 issue devoted to Walsh.

Books A Manual of Stomatology (1957) Peryer, Christchurch Living with Uncertainty (1968), McIndoe, Dunedin Psychiatry and Dentistry (1976) Self-published, Dunedin

Selected scholarly articles