Earl E. Shepard
Earl E. Shepard was born in Marine, Illinois in 1908. After his 1931 graduation from the Washington University School of Dentistry he opened a general dentistry practice in Edwardsville, Illinois, joined the faculty of his alma mater and the staffs of Barnes and St. Luke’s Hospitals. In 1938 Shepard began specializing in orthodontics and moved his practice to the St. Louis area.
Shepard was professor and chair of the Department of Orthodontics from 1953 to 1975, after which he served as professor emeritus and lecturer. In 1964 he received both the School’s and the University’s Distinguished Faculty Awards. The American Association of Orthodontics honored Shepard with its Albert H. Ketcham Award in 1979 and its Distinguished Service Award in 1983. In 1982 Shepard was honored by the Missouri Dental Association for fifty years or more of service to the field of dental health.
Active in both local and national professional organizations, Shepard was a diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics and a fellow of the American and International Colleges of Dentists. From 1977 to 1987 Shepard served as executive director of the American Board of Orthodontics. He served as secretary, treasurer and president of the Midwestern Society of Orthodontists, and since 1987 the group has bestowed the Earl E. Shepard Distinguished Service Award to one of its member who exemplifies the ideals of the orthodontic profession, community and family. Shepard retired from his private practice in the mid-1980s; he died on May 18, 1991.