RETIRED dentist Fred Burton will celebrate his 100th birthday on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
“My secret? Don’t die earlier,” he said.
Dr Burton was Nelson Bay’s first full time dentist.
Like many, his earliest visits to Nelson Bay were on holidays, with his late wife Gloria and their three children, Belinda Peachey, Jenny Hayes and Marie-Louise Parker (dec).
At that stage he was already a well established Sydney dentist in the CBD offices of the T&G building.
Before that, he’d served three years in the Australian Army’s Dental Corp rising to the rank of captain and he had worked under his dentist father, Arthur, in his Lewisham home.
“I got a letter to say they were knocking down the T&G,” Dr Burton said.
“The rent was going to be three times as much when they rebuilt and Nelson Bay was crying out for a dentist.”
The family wasted no time.
“We looked at a place on Joleen Crescent [Shoal Bay] and Gloria said, ‘this is the one’,” Dr Burton said.
“I said to the agent if we buy this I’ll need a place to practice.”
The agent put him in touch with Kevin Blanch who had just built what Dr Burton remembers to be Nelson Bay’s first commercial offices, above the chemist on Donald and Stockton streets.
“Kevin had come from the post office, he had a stack of letters in his hand,” Dr Burton said.
“He said he’d just given away the last office. It wasn’t until he opened his mail that he found out someone had pulled out.”
No sooner had he signed the lease did the next serendipitous event occur.
“I had a letter under the door from Julie Monin who had just got her dental assistant’s certificate,” he said.
“She became invaluable. Letters have played a big part in my life.”
His services were most appreciated. Patients delivered boxes of vegetables and seafood.
“When I came here the children’s teeth were in poor condition,” Dr Burton said.
“They introduced fluoride, by the time I retired their teeth were very good.”
Outside work, he played the organ. He and Gloria helped establish Nelson Bay Baptist Church. Later, Dr Burton was Port Stephens Probus Club president and Royal Volunteer Coast Patrol volunteer of the year in 2001.
