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Richard Ten Cate

The Sixty-first President of the IADR, 1984–85

A. Richard Ten Cate, 61st President of the International Association for Dental Research (1984–1985), died in hospital June 19, 2008, near his home in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. He was 75 years of age. Richard was born in Accrington, Lancashire, England. He was educated in dentistry and anatomical sciences at the Royal College of Dental Surgeons (1961–1963) and Guy’s Hospital Medical School, University of London (1963–1968). During this period, he also collaborated in research at the Eastman Dental Center, Rochester, NY, USA.

In 1968, Richard was a key individual among a wave of established and promising research investigators recruited in the late 1960s and early 1970s to Canada from the UK and other countries of the British Commonwealth. Many of them, including Richard, were appointed to professorial positions at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Dentistry. There, he established his research laboratory and reinvigorated the educational program in histology. In 1971, he was appointed Chairman, Division of Biological Sciences by Dean Gordon Nikiforuk. He became the Faculty’s next Dean in 1977 and served 12 years, until 1989. During his term, following a personal campaign targeted directly to the public through the media, the Faculty of Dentistry underwent a major capital building project that added a five-story "tower" with new research and office space, as well as total renovation of the Faculty’s clinical and lecture facilities. From 1989 to 1994, Richard served the University of Toronto as the Vice-Provost of Health Sciences, where he greatly enhanced the profile of dental education and research among the other medical and health sciences. In 1994, he returned to the Faculty of Dentistry, appointed by the Dean at the time, Barry Sessle, to serve a three-year term as Director of Graduate and Postgraduate Studies and Chair of the Graduate Department of Dentistry, until his retirement in 1998.

Richard Ten Cate was a big man, both in physical stature and in the well-earned respect of his colleagues. A rugby football enthusiast and insightful research investigator of merit, he pursued his academic career as a leader in dental science, education, and international cooperation with energy, enthusiasm, panache, and a willingness to drive change. He concentrated his research on the histochemistry and cell biology of dental tissues, with his primary focus on developmental biology (tooth, periodontium, odontoblast processes during dentinogenesis); wound healing; cell rest proliferation; and collagen turnover during tooth movement. Richard’s first scientific article, on the histochemistry of tooth development, was published in 1959. His subsequent discovery, with Toronto protégé Eric Freeman and graduate student Douglas Deporter, of the intracellular pathway of collagen degradation, "collagen phagocytosis", changed the prevailing paradigm of physiological collagen turnover. This key finding led to extensive exploration of the intracellular pathway by Toronto colleagues Tony Melcher, Calvin Torneck, and Christopher McCulloch and their many graduate students.

Beyond direct advancement of science through his own research, Richard had a much more far-reaching impact as an administrator, by establishing an environment and support system where research and research training were top priorities. He provided considerable national and international leadership in articulating the essential role of research in university education, and was especially sensitive to the dependence of dental schools on leading-edge research for their long-term survival in the academic community. He took the position that since dental research was largely carried out by researchers in dental schools, the viability of dental schools was essential for the progress of dental and oral sciences and the advancement of the dental profession.

Richard Ten Cate was a superb educator and classroom teacher, both in dentistry and in the graduate arena, and many of us have fond memories of his teaching style, with booming voice, shirt hanging out of his trousers, and chalk in hand (these were the days of use of the blackboard as one of the key aids in classroom teaching!). He was a sought-after lecturer and graduate examiner in many countries around the globe. He also encouraged faculty development in many dental schools, both in Canada and abroad. For example, he was instrumental in setting up a sister relationship between West China University dental school in Chengdu and the University of Toronto Faculty of Dentistry, and by helping to develop, nurture, and sustain a long-term post-doctoral and faculty exchange program between the Faculty and the dental school at Nihon University, Japan, he was awarded an honorary degree by that institution.

One of Richard Ten Cate’s best-known, lasting contributions to dental education was the publication of a new concept textbook, Oral Histology: Development, Structure, and Function (Mosby). It was written with highly selected colleagues, meticulously edited by Richard, and it included a large set of finely hand-drawn diagrams and illustrations by close collaborators Ann and Jack Dale. The book quickly became a standard in its field, and it has been through six editions.

How does one measure the impact of an individual on his collaborators, his Faculty, his University, his field? The real measures of a scientist and mentor are the ideas that led to lasting changes in a discipline, the success of trainees and younger colleagues, and their memories and stories... an oral history. Richard Ten Cate, a large man with a deep voice of Lancashire dialect, had a larger-than-life impact among countless colleagues in the oral health research community and among dental practitioners who studied directly with him, during or subsequent to his deanship, or who learned at a distance from his publications and textbook. He touched many members of the IADR, colleagues and friends, and a number of us both in Canada and elsewhere owe some considerable fraction of our success and our career enjoyment to "TC", A. Richard Ten Cate... in memory.

Journal of Dental Research, Vol. 87, No. 9, 797 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/154405910808700905


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This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Ellen, R. P. Articles by Sessle, B. J. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Ellen, R. P. Articles by Sessle, B. J. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?