Friday's Internet Edition, July 25, 2008.
|
| Clemmons dentist Dr. Paul Nifong Sr. and wife Marie stand outside his dental practice on Clemmons Road. |
Well, sort of ...
He still has a couple of appointments in January with patients who just can’t think about anyone else being their dentist yet.
“I’ll come back occasionally,” he said last week.
His son, Dr. Paul D. Nifong Jr., has been a partner in the firm since 1978 and will take over his father’s duties.
But the senior partner is keeping his key to the office door — for visits and to read the newspaper in his office if nothing else.
He’s joining the morning coffee club at Arby’s, ending his 47-year practice in Clemmons.
“I’ve had an excellent career,” he said last week.
I was one of his patients — probably among the first.
His brother, the late physician Frank Nifong, delivered me and my brother and four sisters. My mother held Dr. Frank in the highest regard. When his kid brother opened a new dentist practice in the same building, my mother enrolled the entire family.
Aside from a few years when I lived in Madison, Dr. Paul has filled all my cavities.
In the pre-flouride years, there were a lot of cavities. I seem to remember having three at every check up. My sons now might have one cavity in five years.
I didn’t care for the drill, but I did come to look forward to seeing Nifong, who delivered his best quips when my mouth was stuffed with cotton and drills. I couldn’t respond.
He opened the practice in October 1959. He had been a pilot during the Korean War, spending much of his time flying a C-119 jump plane for paratroopers in training.
One of eight children of the late Henry and Pearl Miller Nifong of Arcadia, Nifong graduated from Arcadia High. He graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry in 1959.
He has gone on a number of Moravian Church-sponsored mission trips to Haiti, Nicaraugua and Honduras. In one two week period, he pulled 1,240 teeth. During his trips, he saw 19,000 patients, many of them who walked for miles to see the missionary dentist.
His wife, Marie, is an accomplished artist, painting many Moravian scenes.
They have three children, Paul Jr. of Clemmons, Gary of Durham and Lisa N. Curry of Clemmons. They have five grandchildren.
A public reception to honor Nifong will be held Saturday, January 6 from 2 to 5 p.m. in the Clemmons Moravian Church Fellowship Hall.