Larry Browne passed away this week; he would have been 79 years old on Sunday.
Many other people will write about Larry’s contribution to Dentistry over the past 50 + years and many people will write more eloquently and more personally than me but I would not have this small platform and not pay tribute to someone who was such a huge influence upon my career.
Larry Browne was a Dental Technician (and hugely proud and felt privileged to be so).
He was one of the original Dental Implant Technicians in the UK and was in fact one of the very earliest ITI Fellows.
When I first started in Implant Dentistry in 1998 he was a huge influence and guide to me and in fact seconded me for my ITI Fellowship in the early 2000’s.
Larry was just, though, a wonderful human being.
He was always happy to help and advise but only for the sake of help and advice.
Larry never had an agenda, he always just wanted to help as much as possible.
In speaking to people following his passing this week it’s clear that we all have a story to tell of how Larry ‘dug us out of a hole’ or more than one hole in my case.
The last time I saw Larry properly was last year at the ITI Annual Scientific meeting and we sat outside the lectures for about an hour talking about his work with the Dental Technician Journal and asking me to produce some material for that which sadly we never seemed to get going.
He was always interested to hear what was going on as I was with him and he always seemed exactly the same as he was when I met him more than 20 years ago.
It was like he’d never aged.
Maybe it’s because I’m getting older and more cynical, but it seems to me that there are just not people in Dentistry around in the same way like Larry who make an impact and a difference like he did.
It is no exaggeration to suggest that I would never have achieved anything like the success that I achieved in my Dental career were it not for the influence of Larry at the early stages.
I am a huge advocate of the ITI and have been for more than 20 years and much of that enthusiasm was a reflection of the great enthusiasm that Larry had for the organisation itself.
He’s more than a loss to Dentistry, he’s irreplaceable but even more importantly than that I’m just sad that I’ve lost another friend.
Blog Post Number - 2388
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