All in the Family

"Did you see the microscopes? Those are mine."

It's been a while since my dad has been excited about work. He has always been a hard-driven worker and he's one of the best businessmen I've ever seen in private dental practice. We joke in our family that while most doctors play golf as a hobby, my father's favorite pastime is to set up dental practices. Not that he doesn't golf. He just plays the game with too much intensity for it to be truly fun for him.

It's that intensity, born from a strict upbringing and honed in the jungles of Vietnam, which helped him flourish as a private practitioner for decades. People with that kind of intensity rarely get wide-eyed with excitement about their work - you're more likely to see a look of tired satisfaction on their faces at the end of yet another long day at the office.

But my dad was excited when he told me about the microscopes. Not because of what they are, but where they are - they're hanging from the ceiling over a handful of examination chairs in a corner of the Midwestern University Glendale Campus' new Dental Institute, where my father oversees the endodontic program. That's his area.

Ever since he first told me his decision to begin work at Midwestern University's College of Dental Medicine-Arizona, my dad has shown an enthusiasm that has been increasingly rare over the past few years with regards to his private practice. He loves the idea of teaching. By nature he has always been one of the most charitable people I have ever known, but teaching is a special form of charitable work. It rarely pays as well as a commercial practice, but I can tell you from personal experience that when someone absorbs a lesson that you have taught and benefits from it, it can be better by far than money.

My dad has plenty of experience to share with MWU's dental students. Dr. Russell Gilpatrick, Dean of the College, told me that my dad's working speed surprises his students - an endodontic procedure that would take a student (and, I understand, some general dentists) several days of multi-hour sessions to complete, for example, has been refined at my dad's hands down to a single two-hour session. And yes, I'm boasting about my old man - call it payback for all of the times that he's done the same for me.

I cannot decide what is more fun for me - seeing my dad's pleasure at being a teacher or watching it happen firsthand as his coworker. It was a serendipitous happenstance that we are even colleagues here at Midwestern - I had sent in my résumé and cover letter before it dawned on me that the job I wanted so badly was located at the same place my father was teaching.

When I started working here, I thought it might get old to hear, "You're Dr. Johns' son," everywhere I went. I guess I'm a little surprised at how proud I am to hear that from my dad's new peers. They think very highly of him, I can tell. On the one hand, that benefits me by association; on the other, it's an additional layer of pressure on me to perform well in my own duties.

Not that I wouldn't be trying my hardest anyway. But there's a special incentive for me to do well so that my dad's good name keeps being held in high esteem. I want Midwestern University to be glad that they decided to hire the Johns boys.

In the end, though, the thing I'm happiest about is that my dad and I get to share a bit of this professional satisfaction and, yes, even excitement together. Not many other fathers and sons get so lucky.