Orion Willis Bedell
Orion Willis Bedell, the son of a dentist, started studying dentistry at the age of sixteen. At nineteen he began his own private practice in his native Ohio. He soon moved to Nebraska, where he became acquainted with Dr. Herbert C. Miller, an 1885 graduate of the Missouri Dental College. Miller suggested Bedell move to St. Louis to enroll in the dental school to earn his dental diploma. In September 1889 Bedell and his family (then still in Ohio) did just that. Orion Bedell enrolled at the both the Missouri Dental College and the St. Louis Medical College, eager to earn both a dental and medical degree.
Bedell graduated cum laude from the Dental Department of Washington University in 1892, whereupon he was appointed demonstrator in Operative Dentistry. He graduated cum laude from the St. Louis Medical College in 1894. In 1895 Bedell became full professor of Operative Dentistry and in 1898 he was elected chair of the Institute of Dental Sciences. Bedell resigned from the faculty in 1902 in order to devote his full efforts to private practice. He died in September 1946.