Helping pave the way
Dr. Harold Jablon, MUSC alum, and wife Irene donate $1 million for new dental clinic building
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Posted March 26, 2008 |
By Jennifer Garvin Columbia, S.C.—The Medical University of South Carolina is $1 million richer thanks to a generous donation from alumnus Dr. Harold Jablon and his wife Irene.
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Dr. Harold and Irene Jablon: "It's so exciting to think about what we will do with the most modern and superior facilities in the country. It's going to be incredible."
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Dr. Jablon, a member of the MUSC College of Dental Medicine's first class which graduated in 1971, said he wanted to give back to a school that has given him so much. The donation will help build the state's first facility designed exclusively for dental instruction and will establish the Jablon Center for Diagnostic Sciences.
"Being part of a new school, my classmates and I always felt like pioneers," Dr. Jablon said. "We felt like we helped set the standards that came to define our college, and I believe we should still help pave the way today through the development of the school's first dedicated clinical instruction building."
The College of Dental Medicine broke ground for the new center in August 2007 and is expected to open in the fall of 2009. The building is estimated to cost approximately $61 million to build and equip.
The college has been a partner in Our
Legacy—Our Future since March 2006 and the donation will be counted toward the nationwide initiative to raise dollars for dental education. Our Legacy—Our Future, an initiative spearheaded by the ADA Foundation and other partners, is designed to raise awareness on the importance of dental education and to promote a culture of philanthropy within the dental profession and solicit a call to action to address these issues.
After graduating, Dr. Jablon worked at a Navy clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. He currently is a general practitioner in Columbia.
When the university began soliciting donations to support the new building, Dr. Jablon said there was never any doubt that he and Irene, whom he met in dental school, would respond enthusiastically.
 "Very few people realize how little state support the university receives: less than 10 percent," he said. "It makes you want to do everything you can within your means to help the school. This college has always excelled didactically and clinically speaking. It's so exciting to think about what we will do with the most modern and superior facilities in the country. It's going to be incredible."
The Jablon Center for Diagnostic Sciences plans to bring together the Oral Medicine, Radiology and Treatment Planning Clinics, as well as the clinic's respective patient waiting areas.
"I am thrilled that through Harold's and Irene's contribution, our college will be able to provide state of the art diagnostic services and equipment for our patients," said Dr. Jack Sanders, dean of the College of Dental Medicine.
"Additionally, the Jablon Center for Diagnostic Sciences will be an invaluable resource for private dental practitioners statewide who cannot afford to house [imaging] equipment in their smaller practice settings. We will be happy to be a referral center for those practitioners to provide the latest in radiographic equipment for their patients."
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