Summer 2014 1

NewSummer 2014

The Wizard of Emerald HillsDr. Richard Rutter

The Scrabble MasterDr. Michael Stevens

[ life beyond orthodontics ]Dimensions

2 New Dimensions [life beyond orthodontics]

a look inside panorama

AAO retirees engage in a wide variety of unusual and unique hobbies and activities. For some, like Dr. Richard Rutter, a post-retirement hobby is the continuation of a long-time passion. Dr. Rutter’s involvement in a Wizard of Oz fan group resulted in a front-page feature in the New York Times. Back home again, he built a room especially for his many Oz-related col-lectibles. He also has translated three German Sherlock Holmes pastiches into English and at age 80, scored two goals in a water polo game against varsity-level college players.

Dr. Michael Stevens is a long-time Scrabble aficionado, now ranked at the state and national levels of competitive Scrabble play. The problem-solving aspects of high-level play remind Dr. Stevens of what he enjoyed most about orthodontic practice.

Enjoy this issue of New Dimensions.

cover story

The Wizard of 3 Emerald Hills Dr. Richard Rutter

on the cover

Dr. Richard Rutter is pictured

in a room that he built to house

his Wonderful Wizard of Oz and

L. Frank Baum memorabilia.

The Scrabble 8 MasterDr. Michael Stevens

in every issue

benefits 11reconnect 12

New Dimensions

Summer 2014

Editor: Gail Gardner

Art Director: Julie Byrne

Cover Photo: Dr. Richard Rutter

© 2014 American Association of Orthodontists

All rights reserved.

Summer 2014 3

Technically, Dr. Richard “Dick” Rutter does not live in Emerald City; he lives in a neighborhood called Emerald Hills in Redwood City, CA. The long-time aficionado of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and other Baum works is nonetheless entertained by the fact that as long as it has the cor-rect zip code, mail addressed to him in Emerald City always arrives.

Like most of us, Dr. Rutter first encountered The Wizard of Oz as a child.

“I read the book and saw the 1939 movie with Judy Garland in a movie house as a seven-year-old,” he says. Growing up, he thought little more about the story and eventually enrolled at Stanford University. After graduating, he went on to dental school at the University of the Pacific (then The College of Physicians & Surgeons) in San Francisco and then became an orthodontic resident at Colum-bia University.

In 1961, Dr. Rutter entered private orthodontic practice in the Stan-ford Professional Area in Palo Alto. He also was a faculty member of the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry. The dental school had no graduate program in orthodon-tics. During the late 1960s, Dr. Rutter began developing plans for the program.

“The first class of residents en-tered in 1971,” he says. “It was very rewarding to see the program become successful and highly regarded nationally.” Dr. Rutter served as chair of the program until 1986.

Dr. Rutter and his wife, Joanne, reared two children, Karen and Jim. As his children became old enough to appreciate The Wonder-ful Wizard of Oz, Dr. Rutter learned about The International Wizard of Oz Club.

“I learned that the Club had an annual national meeting and that there were regional groups in the United States: the Winkies in the West, the Quadlings in the South, Gillikens in the North and the Munchkins in the East,” says Dr. Rutter. “Our kids liked the Oz stories and so in 1976, we went to our first meeting of the Winkies.”

The Wizard of Emerald HillsDr. Richard Rutter

Dr. Richard Rutter

Dr. Richard Rutter entered and won many

Wizard of Oz Club costume contests. Here

he is pictured as Frogman from The Lost

Princess, another L. Frank Baum book.

4 New Dimensions [life beyond orthodontics]

Exploring the World of Oz Fans While Preparing to Teach In Germany Attending the Oz Club meetings, Dr. Rutter began to learn more about the series of 14 books writ-ten by L. Frank Baum and the many sequels written by other authors. He began collecting Oz books and memorabilia. At his son’s encour-agement, he also began competing in the costume contest at the annual Winkie (Western Regional) meeting, a tradition that he would continue for nearly 20 years.

“My favorite costumes included Tik-Tok (from Ozma of Oz) and the Enchanted Apple Tree (from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz),” he says. He won the contest 10 times.

Dr. Rutter’s involvement with The Wizard of Oz Club was inter-rupted only by a three-year leave of absence in West Germany. From 1986-89, he taught orthodontics at Julius Maximus University. Before leaving for West Germany, he sold his private practice and resigned from his position at the University of the Pacific.

“I took evening classes in the Ger-man language for five years at our local community college to prepare for our move to Germany,” says Dr. Rutter. “While there, I taught my

lab and seminars in German, but very few Americans (myself includ-ed) attain real fluency in German. I was not able to deliver lectures of any great length in German.”

The Wizard of Emerald Hills continued from page 3

Dr. Richard Rutter’s award-winning cos-

tumes portraying characters from the Oz

books also included Tik-Tok (bottom) and

Quox the Dragon. Tik-Tok, who is one of

the first robots to appear in literature, first

appears in the L. Frank Baum book Ozma

of Oz, in which he becomes Dorothy Gale’s

protector. Quox the Dragon is a character

from Tik-Tok of Oz.

Summer 2014 5

Dr. Rutter returned to his orthodon-tic faculty position after his stint in Germany, but decided against going back to private practice. He also returned to the Wizard of Oz Club and developed new costumes for the annual contest. In 2000 for the Wizard of Oz centennial cel-ebration, he portrayed the Wizard of Oz by donning a top hat and a frock coat and taking a short hot air balloon trip over Bloomington, Indiana, where the celebration was being held.

The celebration and Dr. Rutter’s part in it were featured in a front-page story in the New York Times.

A Treasure Trove of MemorabiliaBack at home in California, Dr. Rutter found his collection of Oz memorabilia and books growing exponentially. He began designing and building a special room for the collectibles, complete with an entrance path of yellow bricks that he laid himself.

Today the room houses about 1,700 books and collectibles. The books include two first edition copies of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and a number of less well-known, and rare books by L. Frank Baum. Among Dr. Rutter’s favorites are:

The Navy Alphabet (1900). Dr. Rutter’s copy is inscribed by L. Frank Baum to his brother, Harry C. Baum. The book is a Spanish-American War picture book.

Mother Goose in Prose (1897). This was the first book by Baum as well as the first book illustrated by the famed artist, Maxfield Parish, making it dou-bly sought after.

A New Wonderland (1900). Dr. Rutter reports that copies of this Baum book are very scarce.

Dr. Richard Rutter dressed as the Wizard

of Oz and took a hot air balloon trip

at the 100th anniversary celebration

commemorating the book.

6 New Dimensions [life beyond orthodontics]

Dr. Rutter’s favorite collectible items include a miniature Bissel carpet sweeper that was part of the 1939 MGM Wizard of Oz film promotion.

“The sweeper is a very rare item,” says Dr. Rutter. In addition, he ad-mires his crystal sculpture of the Emerald City as “stunning” and also likes a holograph of vaudevil-lian Fred Stone’s introduction to a 1930’s edition of the Wizard. Stone made his career by playing the Scarecrow in the long-running 1903 Broadway Musical.

Diverse Interests: From Sherlock Holmes to Water PoloSince retiring from teaching in 2009, Dr. Rutter has continued building his Wizard of Oz/Baum collection and also has a separate room of Sherlock Holmes col-lectibles. He is also active in fan groups for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous sleuth, including the Baker Street Irregulars, a group named after a gang of young street urchins whom the character Holmes often employed to help him solve cases.

The Wizard of Emerald Hills continued from page 5

Another hobby of Dr. Richard Rutter’s is translating Sherlock Holmes

pastiches written in German to English. He has published two of his

translations and is working on publishing a third translation this year.

Dressed as Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Rutter

was photographed at the Reichenbach

Falls at Meirigen, Switzerland, where

the fictional sleuth met with his nem-

esis, Professor Moriarty, for their fatal

encounter. Dr. Rutter was attending a

Society of London tour in Switzerland.

Summer 2014 7

Dr. Rutter has also enjoyed the challenge of translating German language Sherlock Holmes pas-tiches (stories written in the style of the original books).

Dr. Rutter hopes to publish Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of Mayerling this year. He previ-ously published two other pastiche translations, Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Sachertorte (2005) and Sherlock Holmes: The Truth about Ludwig II (1995).

Other passions important to Dr. Rutter include Stanford University athletics, of which he is a devoted fan. As an undergraduate at Stan-ford, he played varsity water polo on the 1953 Pacific Coast Cham-pion team with All-Americans Jim Gaughran and Bob Froejen, who competed in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.

In 2012, at 80 years of age, Dr. Rutter scored two goals in the Stanford Alumni-Varsity water polo game.

Dr. Rutter’s Oz-related activities now include passing down his in-terest by reading the Oz stories to his five grandchildren. On his own, he enjoys reading many of the related works in his collection.

“These include biographies of Baum and of the actors seen in the 1939 movie,” he says. “There are also books examining many other topics, such as the psychol-ogy of The Wizard of Oz and hidden

meanings in the story. I find many of these topics very interesting, although I do believe that some people read more into the story than Baum ever intended.”

Two years ago at age 80, Dr. Richard

Rutter scored two goals in the Stan-

ford Alumni-Varsity water polo game.

8 New Dimensions [life beyond orthodontics]

Growing up in San Diego, Dr. Michael Stevens developed an in-terest in dentistry at a young age.

“When a doctor or nurse would look at the dental work in my mouth, they would always tell me that it was some of the best dental work they had ever seen,” says Dr. Stevens. “My dentist, Dr. Jack C. Longley was trained at the University of Southern California. Going to the USC dental school became my primary goal.”

Perhaps in part due to his family background—his father was a tool and die maker—Dr. Stevens was

extremely interested in the hands-on aspects of dentistry as well as the scientific side.

“At that time, the chalk carving dexterity test was part of the Dental Admission Test,” he says. “I practiced intensively for that element and got a perfect score on that portion of the exam.”

Dr. Stevens received a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young Univer-sity, He achieved his goal of being admitted to the USC School of Dentistry (now the Ostrow School of Dentistry). By his third year as a dental student, he had developed

a strong interest in operative dentistry and ranked at the top of his class in that area. As he neared graduation, Dr. Stevens was admitted to the USC orthodon-tic residency program, then led by Dr. Harry Dougherty.

In 1975, Dr. Stevens completed the residency program and re-turned to Utah, entering practice in Holladay, a suburb of Salt Lake City, and eventually added a sat-ellite office in nearby Roosevelt. He served as president of the Utah Orthodontic Society in 1984-85.

From Family Scrabble to Competitive ScrabbleJust before starting dental school, Dr. Stevens had married his wife, Susan. They raised four children, two sons and two daughters. Their son, Dr. Daron Stevens, is now an AAO member in Nampa, Idaho. Their other children, Ryan, Tama and Alexa, are also now adults and the Stevens’ have seven grandchildren.

The Scrabble MasterDr. Michael Stevens

Dr. Michael Stevens plays Scrabble

with his daughter, Alexa Stevens.

Summer 2014 9

“For many years, we had a house-boat on Lake Powell,” he says. “We were always taking the kids out and staying on the boat for a few days. Once a year, Susan’s brother from Albuquerque and his family would join us. My brother-in-law shared my love of fishing. He also loved playing Scrabble and always brought his Scrabble game, and we would play well into the night after fishing all day.”

One day in the late 1980s, Dr. Stevens picked up a brochure on the Salt Lake City Scrabble Club while shopping at a mall.

“I went to the pizza parlor where the club met to check it out,” he says. “The people in the club were from all walks of life. I thought, ‘With my education, I should be able to beat them.’ But it was much harder than I expected. I went every week and I think it took three months for me to win a game. The club was a competitive play environment and I found that as with anything else, playing with people who can really challenge you is the only way to get better.”

Eventually, Dr. Stevens went on to play in state, regional and national tournaments sponsored by the North American Scrabble Players’ Association (NASPA). While he

was still in orthodontic practice, he often mentioned his hobby to patients.

“Some patients had a lot of fun with my unusual hobby,” he says. “One adult patient took to calling me, ‘Dr. Scrabble,’ and he made a Scrabble sign for me that we hung in the waiting area,” (see photo on page 11).

Dr. Stevens retired from orthodon-tic practice in 2012. Today, he is ranked 4th in Utah and 294th nationally with NASPA.

“My goal is to get into the top 100, but that is very hard to do,” he says. He also continues to play at the local level as the director of the Salt Lake City Scrabble Club. His personal best Scrabble score

is 642. He also once earned 239 points in one play, playing the word dewaxing.*

“Competitive Scrabble is enjoyable not just because of the level of play, but because you also meet interesting people from all over the world at tournaments,” says Dr. Stevens. “There are very strong players from England, Australia and New Zealand and even from non-English-speaking countries, especially in Asia.”

* In Scrabble, players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter and number of points for the tile, onto a board divided into grid of squares. The tiles must form words which flow left to right in rows or downwards in columns, like a crossword puzzle. Each player may choose from only seven eligible tiles for each play.

Among the words that Dr. Michael

Stevens set up on the Scrabble

Board are 10 orthodontic-related

words. Can you find them?

10 New Dimensions [life beyond orthodontics]

A Satisfying Game on Many Levels“One thing that I particu-larly like about Scrabble is that while people think it is all about words, there is more to it,” says Dr. Stevens. “A major aspect of playing at a high level—maybe even more important—is understanding the strategy and the mathematics of the game. Some plays are done for offensive reasons, some for defensive. What I loved about orthodontics was the technical part of the mechanics and the in-tellectual challenge of understand-ing and solving a malocclusion, using those mechanics. Untangling a difficult malocclusion often felt very similar, in terms of having to know what movement to make and when.

“One aspect of Scrabble that I find very appealing is the need to reassess the board position after every play in order to make the best move possible,” adds Dr. Stevens. “Similarly, as an orthodontist I always felt that at every appointment each patient had to be reevaluated to make sure the original treatment plan was still the best.”

Like most high-level Scrabble play-ers, Dr. Stevens devotes consider-able time to learning words that are included on the NASPA Official Word List (OWL), a private list used in NASPA competition. In serious Scrabble play, only accepted words are to be used. NASPA also provides updates to the Official Scrabble® Players Dictionary for non-competitive play.

“Of course, I like to use orthodontic and dental terms that are accept-ed by NASPA,” says Dr. Stevens. “Unfortunately, some words that I think should be allowed, like over-jet and debond, are not accepted. You can use overbite, bruxism and dentin, as well as some other dental and anatomical terms. My education and professional background sometimes give me an advantage while playing.”

The Scrabble Master continued from page 9 Dr. Michael Stevens also makes custom

Scrabble boards with rotating bases,

which are commonly used by competitive

Scrabble players.

Summer 2014 11

Outside of playing Scrabble, Dr. Stevens enjoys other long-time hobbies such as fishing and golf, but also recently began a new activity related to Scrabble. Com-petitive Scrabble players usually do not use a standard board, but instead use a board that rotates to face each player for his or her turn.

“There was someone who used to make custom folding Scrabble boards used in competition, but stopped doing that,” says Dr. Stevens. “I decided to try it and now make hinged boards, each one mounted on a turntable base.

Raised grids keep tiles from mov-ing on the board. I get orders from all over the country and enjoy mak-ing the boards. The technical skills that I learned in dental school and in my orthodontic residency are very useful in the process. It is very rewarding to still be able to make things involving minute detail and manual dexterity.”

benefits

As a retired member of the AAO, you continue to receive many of the same benefits and services that you received as an active member, plus a few extra perks. First, your AAO membership is provided at no charge to you, in honor of your years of service to the specialty. In addition, you enjoy free registration for the AAO An-nual Session, where your presence is welcomed.

You also continue to receive:

24-hour access to the AAO member website, aaoinfo.org, which offers information and resources for members, including the membership directory; Regular publications, both print and electronic, that deliver news about the specialty and orthodontists — New Dimensions is designed especially for you;

A discounted subscription to the American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics (AJO-DO) for $36 per year

Access to the AAO reference library through aaoinfo.org;

Other benefits, including:

Quotes on AAO-endorsed long-term care insurance;

Access to AAO-approved Medjet Assist, a medical evacuation service for travelers;

Discounted access to Oakstone Inc. continuing education products.

For more information contact Sherry Nappier, manager of membership services, at 800-424-2841, ext. 518, or snappier@aaortho.org; or visit the AAO member website, aaoinfo.org. Through its programs and offerings, the AAO helps you stay connected to a network of thousands of active and retired orthodontists around the world.

* Your retiree membership in the AAO renews automatically every year.

Your benefits as an AAO retired memberValue of AAO membership continues into your retirement

One of Dr. Michael Stevens’ patients made

the “Dr. Scrabble” sign for his office.

12 New Dimensions [life beyond orthodontics]

reconnect

Canadian Association of Orthodontists66th Annual Scientific SessionSeptember 4-6, 2014

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Information: http://cao-aco.org/EVENTS/future.asp

Great Lakes Association of Orthodontists & Midwestern Society of OrthodontistsAnnual Session

September 11-13, 2014

Chicago, IL

Information: http://www.msortho.org

Rocky Mountain Society of OrthodontistsAnnual SessionSeptember 18-21, 2014

Jackson Hole, WY

Information: http://www.rmso.org

Pacific Coast Society of OrthodontistsAnnual MeetingOctober 2-5, 2014

Anaheim, CA

Information: www.pcsortho.org

Southern Association of OrthodontistsAnnual MeetingOctober 8-12, 2014

Nassau, Bahamas

Information: www.saortho.org

Middle Atlantic Society of OrthodontistsAnnual MeetingOctober 17-20, 2014

Williamsburg, VA

Information: http://www.maso.org

Southwestern Society of OrthodontistsAnnual MeetingOctober 23-26, 2014

Little Rock, AR

Information: http://www.swso.org

Northeastern Society of OrthodontistsAnnual MeetingNovember 6-9, 2014

Hartford, CT

Information: http://www.neso.org

American Association of OrthodontistsWinter Conference“Early Orthodontic Treatment:

Who, When, Why and How to Treat”

February 6-8, 2015

Miami Beach, FL

Information: www.aaoinfo.org

American Association of OrthodontistsAnnual SessionMay 15-19, 2015

San Francisco, CA

Information: www.aaoinfo.org

Upcoming Professional Meetings