Henry Fawcett Canby

? OBITUARY ?

Dr. Henry Fawcett Canby

Dr. Henry Fawcett Canby, Captain, served 40 years in the U.S. Public Health Service. He was born in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa on June 21, 1908 to George Price Canby and Letitia Jane Kneen Canby. He attended Iowa Wesleyan College and the State University of Iowa, receiving his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree in 1932 graduating with high academic honors. In 1942, he received a Master?s degree at Yale University, School of Dental Public Health. During his college years he was active in varsity and intramural sports. He set the national inter-collegiate and world indoor pole vaulting record at the Big Ten Track meet in 1929. He held the State University of Iowa record for 26 years. He also qualified for the final tryout of the 1932 Olympics.

He had five years of training in ROTC and interned at Marine Hospitals Boston and Baltimore. During his career he had a variety of assignments in the Outpatient Clinics of the PHS and Coast Guard: Levenworth, Kansas; Curtis Bay, Maryland; Groton, Connecticut; Washington, D.C.; and Honolulu, Hawaii. During World War II, he was assigned as Chief Dental Officer of the Miami 7th Naval District. In 1946 he was transferred back to Washington, D.C. where he was assigned to the Division of Federal Employee Health and formulated the first Preventive Dental Health Program of the division. He was assigned to the Division of Hospitals as Chief for Dental Program Activities from 1959-63. In this capacity, he administered the dental program of the Division which included directing and staffing of Public Health Service Hospitals and Outpatient Clinics. During this period he conducted and established the Oral Exfoliative Cytology Study in conjunction with the Cancer Control Program under the Division of Chronic Diseases of the PHS. The study results provided a means for early diagnosis of cancer of the tissues of the mouth and throat. These and other significant contributions have been made by Dr. Canby in the interest of higher standards of dental health throughout the U.S. He was assigned as Chief Dental Officer of the U.S. Coast Guard, Washington, D.C. from 1969-72.

During his career, Dr. Canby received a Meritorious Service Award from the PHS and an Outstanding Service Award from the U.S. Coast Guard. He was a member of the American Dental Association, American college of Dentists, Association of Military Surgeons, Clinical Society, Pan American Medical Society, and the Public Health Service Commissioned Officers Association. He served as Chairman of the Washington section of the American College of Dentists from 1967-68. Dr. Canby was also a member of the Masonic Lodge of Baltimore, the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, MD, and attended the First Baptist Church in Morgantown, WV. He was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon and Delta Sigma Delta fraternities. Honorary awards include Omicron Kappa Upsilon and Omicron Delta Kappa

Survivors include his wife, Mrs. Ruth Boyers Canby of Morgantown, WV whom he married in 1986, three children, Diane Thompson of Seattle, WA, Marilyn Baas of Richmond, VA, Carin Carmack of Annapolis, MD; five grandchildren, Ray Reeves, Ken Reeves, Mikel Thompson, Henry Thompson, and Tina Farley, and four great grandchildren, Andrew, Emily, and Audrey Thompson, and Isabel Reeves. His wife of 47 years, Jean Messner Canby died in 1982. The family requests that memorial contributions be made in lieu of flowers to the National Hemophilia Society, the Maryland Lupus Foundation or the First Baptist Church, 432 High Street, Morgantown, WV 26505.

Cremation Services will be provided by Hastings Funeral Home in Morgantown, WV. Friends will be received at the First Baptist Church on High Street in Morgantown, WV. on Monday, June 26, 2000 from 10:00 A.M. until time of Memorial Service at 11:00 A.M. with the Rev. Dr. James M. Stinespring and Rev. Dr. Truett Rogers officiating.