A native of Wilmington, Delaware, Clarence Jones Grieves was born on October 23, 1868, the son of Edward Weldin and Lucretia Jones Grieves. In his early years, his family moved to Baltimore, and Clarence completed his secondary education at The Manual Training School, later renamed The Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. Clarence's father was a mechanical engineer, who spent a portion of his professional career affiliated with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. This background fueled the boy's development and later professional scientific activities. Between Clarence and the elder Grieves there was always a most cordial comradeship. They were to each other brothers, rather than father and son, and towards his step-mother who survives him, he always showed the kindest and most considerate attitude. 1 | No doubt the influence of his father's mechanical leanings provided an ideal background to Clarence's eventual research interests and dental practice, a profession which arguably is as much mechanical as it is medical. His early contributions to the published literature, focusing on the composition of the metals being used in the manufacture of dental orthodontic appliances, remained authoritative references in the field. His scientific vision eventually focused itself on the connections between technology and histology, as evidenced in later publications devoted to focal infections.
|
After completing school, Clarence joined his father for a time as an employee with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. However, he soon gave in to the tuggings of an interest in dentistry, the seeds of which first germinated at the hands of two people very close to him. These were his maternal uncle, Dr. Robert Jones, a prominent dentist, and Dr. Richard Grady, also a dentist, who participated in the founding of the Polytechnic Institute, where Clarence first came under his influence. Consequently, Clarence entered the Dental Department of the University of Maryland for the 1886-87 session, and successfully completed the two-year requirement the next year, graduating as a member of the 1888 class. Following his graduation, he received an immediate appointment as an assistant demonstrator in operative dentistry. He continued for several years as a demonstrator in the area of crown and bridge-work. | | | The MEDICAL DIRECTORY AND REGISTER FOR BALTIMORE, WASHINGTON, MARYLAND AND DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA of 1888 lists the address of Dr. Grieves as 25 S. Fulton Avenue in Baltimore. Also, he is known to have maintained professional association with Dr. Richard Grady and Dr. H. A. Wilson for several years in an office on Howard Street. |
 | In the early years of his career, he began participating in activities throughout the wider professional community. On April 6-8,1897, a combined assembly of the Maryland State Dental Association, the Washington City Dental Society, and the Virginia State Dental Association convened in Old Point Comfort, Virginia. Grieves read his paper entitled "Removable plate-bridge, vulcanite base" before that group. It was the first of many articles that appeared in the DENTAL COSMOS in subsequent years, including the 1909 feature article illustrated here, entitled "The Behavior of Certain Metals in the Mouth." Certainly, this interest in the mechanical and metallurgical aspects of the dental craft naturally correlated with his demonstrator duties at the University of Maryland. His name appeared in the 1906-07 catalog of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery as its first Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Dental Histology. This position evolved from the former Professorship of Physiology and Comparative Anatomy, and in appointing Grieves to the new post, the school also created the Professorship of Physiology. Grieves retained his post until 1917, and it was during this tenure that an important new focus of his research found its fruition in print.
|
One of his articles entitled "The Teaching of Pathology in the Dental Schools" appeared in THE DENTAL BRIEF in July 1913. Grieves came to understand that infection and disease are equal in importance to mechanical function in the overall condition of oral health. With this paper, he helped the field of dental education to recognize that materials and mechanics have significant inherent implications for infection in the consideration of oral health and disease. |
The call of patriotism beckoned Grieves, and he resigned his position at the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery in order to enter the Naval Reserve Force, in August 1918. His service record appears in the book MARYLAND IN THE WORLD WAR, 1917-1919. His assignment was with the hospital attached to the Naval Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois. At the conclusion of his tour of service, he re-entered civilian life and resumed professional practice in Baltimore in March, 1919. He remained in practice for the next few years, until a hemiplegia forced him to abandon the physical rigors of his work and publication activities. Nevertheless, his mind remained active, and he continued to nurture his interests in reading and keeping up with the continuing developments taking place in national and state dental associations. His love for his family and closest acquaintances remained at the heart of his sensitivites until his death. His colleagues among the Maryland State Dental Association celebrated his personality, his friendship, and his professional gifts and accomplishments by establishing the Clarence J. Grieves Library Foundation in 1925, during the closing years of his physical disability. After nearly five years of invalidism, he died at his home on Novenber 4, 1927. |
REFERENCES
1 George E. Hardy, "Doctor Clarence Jones Grieves, Part II," The Bulletin, the National Alumni Association of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery 2 (December 1927) : 16. |
