Dr. Dale R. Eisenmann, who served as Interim Dean of the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry from 1999 to 2000, died on April 23, 2013. He was 72.
Dr. Eisenmann served the College as Head of the Department of Histology from 1973 to 1991, Head of the Histology section of the Department of Oral Biology from 1991 to 1994, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 1994 to 1999, before becoming Interim Dean. He was succeeded by the current Dean, Dr. Bruce Graham.
“I remember Dale as an extraordinarily humble and kind person,” said Dr. Graham, who. “But I remember him most for the way that he worked with the Department Heads on my behalf in 1999, to identify the College’s resource needs so that I could negotiate with the Provost to gain some of those resources, to enable the faculty to recognize their dream of an excellent College. At that time, he ably led the Department Heads in laying the foundation for all that has been accomplished during the past 13 years.
“When he was Interim Dean he didn’t just tend the shop—he moved the College forward,” Dr. Graham continued. “Faculty were recruited, and tough decisions were made and executed.”
Dr. Eisenmann was born in Watseka, IL, on Jan. 13, 1941. He married Judith A. Feller on June 25, 1961. He earned his DDS from the College in 1965 and his PhD in Anatomy in 1968.
After his first year as a dental student, Dr. Eisenmann was given the opportunity to participate in a research program. His facility for research resulted in the opportunity to become a National Institutes of Health trainee, and when he finished graduate studies in 1968, he was offered a post on the College of Dentistry faculty.
At the College, he researched cellular control of mineralization, calcium transport and interaction in developing dental tissues, the internal structure of dentin, and modulating ameloblasts and enamel protein processing. Dr. Eisenmann had more than 40 scientific publications to his credit.
He had chaired more than ten committees at the College.
Dr. Eisenmann earned the College’s Instructorship Award in 1969, was named Instructor of the Year in 1971, was conferred the E. Lloyd Du Brul Faculty Achievement Award in 1983, and earned the University of Illinois Alumni Association Loyalty Award in 1999.
A member of the Apostolic Christian Church for 59 years, Dr. Eisenmann after his retirement from the College increased his activities with the church, serving as a minister and elder until retiring from that post in 2010 with the Apostolic Christian Church of Chicago in Hillside, IL.
Dr. Eisenmann had lived in Darien, IL. He is survived by his wife, Judith; son Bradley, husband of Cynthia; son Todd; daughter Luann, and four grandchildren.