Lester R. Cahn
Founder &
President, 1948-1949
©American Academy of Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology. Used with permission.
Lester Cahn was born in New York City on October 9, 1886. He received his D.D.S. from New York University and practiced general dentistry in New York City from 1918 until he retired in 1984. He taught oral pathology at Columbia University from 1925 until his retirement. Although a part-time faculty member, he directed the oral pathology courses for many years and taught for the Faculty of Medicine. He was very active in the New York Institute of Oral Pathology which was established prior to the American Academy of Oral Pathology. He was the first President of the American Board of Oral Pathology. He frequently lectured in Great Britain and was a Fellow in Dental Surgery of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England where he was Tomes Lecturer, and of Edinburgh where' he was Guys Lecturer. He received a Doctor of Science degree from the University of Leeds. He was Chancellor and a Founder of the International Academy of Oral Pathology. He was a recipient of the Pierre Fauchard Gold Medal.
His publications included The dentigerous cyst as a potential ameloblastoma, Dent Cosmos, 1933; Pemphigus, Amer J Ortho Oral Surg, 1947; Fordyce disease, Arch Gen Oral Path, 1947; The jaws in generalized skeletal disease, Annals Royal Coll Surg (Eng), 1951; Oral amyloidosis as a complication of myelomatosis, Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Path, 1957.
Dr. Cahn died in 1986.
These notes and photos are from: Robinson HBG. History of the American Academy of Oral Pathology 1946-1987. The American Academy of Oral Pathology, Chicago, 1988, pp. 1-100. Used with permission.