Benno Edward Lischer
Benno E. Lischer was born in Mascoutah, Illinois in 1876, the son of the first mayor of that town. He received the degree of D.M.D. from the Dental Department of Washington University in 1900, and immediately joined the faculty of the school as instructor in Operative Technique and Dental Anatomy. Lischer served as professor of Orthodontics from 1901 until 1924, when he resigned to concentrate on his private dental practice and to serve as non-resident lecturer in Orthodontics at the University of Michigan.
In 1929 Lischer and his family moved to San Francisco when he accepted a position as professor of Orthodontics at the University of California. They returned to St. Louis in 1933 when the Washington University School of Dentistry offered Lischer the deanship of the school. Lischer served as dean and professor of Orthodontia until his retirement in 1945.
Lischer authored two texts on orthodontia: Elements of Orthodontia (1909) and Principles and Methods of Orthodontics (1912). He served as president of the St. Louis Dental Society (1908), the American Society of Orthodontists (1913), the St. Louis Society of Orthodontists (1928-29), the American Association of Dental Editors (1941), and the American Association of Dental Schools (1942). Internationally known as an orthodontist, educator and writer, Dr. Lischer was the recipient of the highest award of the American Association of Orthodontists, the Albert H. Ketcham Memorial Award, in 1951.