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The Origin of the McHenry County Dental Society

Chartered by the Illinois State Dental Society on May 10, 1967.

In the early 1950s dentists from Crystal Lake, McHenry, Woodstock, and other McHenry County towns who wanted to attend a dental seminar had to travel to the Fox Valley Dental Society in St. Charles, Illinois, or to the Winnebago County Dental Society in Rockford, Illinois, or to the Lake County Dental Group in Waukegan, Illinois.

The McHenry County dentists kept encountering each other at these seminars and over time they developed an outstanding fellowship. Eventually, they were inspired to form their own McHenry County Dental Study Club. By the early 1960s, this group of mainly World War II veterans saw the need to create a more structured organization, and they elected a president from among their members. It wasn't long before these young professionals felt that their group was evolving into a local dental society that needed to be recognized by the state organization.

In the mid 1960s, the group's members, full of youthful confidence, went to the Fox Valley Dental Society with a proposal for establishing their own component of the Illinois State Dental Society, which would be known as the McHenry County Dental Society. Up to this time, the Fox Valley group was the only one that represented dentists in McHenry County.

We were well prepared for our meeting with the Fox Valley Board of Directors, the President, and Councilman of the District. Our enthusiasm, dedication, and professionalism came through clearly. At that time, we could verify that 10 of our members belonged to the Chicago Dental Society , 5 members belonged to the Winnebago Dental Society, and 27 members belonged to the Fox Valley Dental Society. We proposed that the people of McHenry County could be better served if the dentists in these towns had their own local branch of the Illinois State Dental Society. Our proposal was not in vain.

On May 10, 1967, the Illinois State Dental Society issued a charter to the dentists of McHenry County, authorizing them to form their own McHenry County Dental Society.