A focus on the fundamentals.
That's what Dr. Rick Scott (MS '82) remembers most about Dr. James Hayward's approach to oral and maxillofacial surgery.
A former instructor at the U-M School of Dentistry for ten years, Scott has had his own practice in Ann Arbor since 1993. "What I learned from Dr. Hayward when I pursued my master's degree has helped me enormously, both as an instructor and in private practice," he said.
The most important lessons Scott said he learned from Hayward were basic approaches to surgery. "While that may not seem earth-shattering, it's so fundamental to what I do day-in and day-out," he said.
The fundamentals, he said, included approaching, diagnosing, and treating patients; learning operating room basics; and being professional in both conduct and appearance.
Professionalism also included punctuality.
"I remember hurrying to the hospital one morning afraid of being late for my seven o'clock rounds. Driving in, I noticed there wasn't much traffic. I arrived only a minute or two before seven," Scott said. "But there was Dr. Hayward looking at his watch and then at me."
I wasn't until a few months later, Scott said, that he realized it was the 4th of July. "He expected you to be on time, ready to do your job, regardless of whether it was a holiday or not."
Once you mastered the fundamentals, Scott said, Hayward expected you to continue to progress.
"He set the performance bar very high for all of us and expected us to reach it and surpass it," Scott said. "That too has proved beneficial because since graduating, many of today's surgical procedures are different than what they were in 1982," he said. "But I wouldn't have been able to adapt had I not learned the fundamentals."
Scott said his pledge of $50,000 "wasn't a hard decision to make." His pledge was based on a combination of factors. One was a presentation by the chair of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Dr. Norman Betts. "He elegantly outlined the need for an endowed chair and his interest in seeing this become reality weighed heavily in my decision," Scott said.
"However, having and endowed chair named for my former teacher, Jim Hayward, or for Chalmers Lyons, was another major reason for making my gift," Scott said.