Founder of American Board of Pathology, First Editor-in-Chief of Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, and Oral Radiology and being the father of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology
He was born in Basel, Switzerland and attended the Institute of Technology in Switzerland where he studied architecture. He eventually moved to USA in 1908 and received his dental degree from Harvard School of Dental Medicine in 1911. He then returned to Switzerland to learn usage of Procaine in Dental anesthesia. He returned to United States later on and served as Professor of Oral Pathology and Oral Surgery at Harvard. He also taught at Boston University and Pennsylvania Dental School. He served as the editor in chief for Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine and Oral Pathology for 22 years.[3]
Dr. Thoma wrote several textbooks[4] and wrote over 300 scientific articles during his career. Thoma was consultant for the United States Public Health Service, the Veterans Administration, Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. He was the oral surgeon to the Brooks Hospital in Brookline, Massachusetts for 50 years and was on staff of many Boston area hospitals. In 1912, he married Louise Bird and they had two children, Kurt Richard Thoma and Richard S. Alles.
