Former Greensboro endodontist, wife fund endowed professorship to support dental faculty
Published on: June 29, 2023
JAMESTOWN, N.C. (June 27, 2023) – Guilford Technical Community College announces the establishment of the Dr. Stuart and Mrs. Carol Fountain Endowed Professorship to be awarded annually to a faculty member in the health sciences division, preferably to a faculty member in dental sciences.
The endowment was made possible through the donation of $200,000 by the Fountains, longtime supporters of GTCC. Fountain is a retired endodontist who served on GTCC's board of trustees from 1981 to 2001 and was chairman five of those years.
The Fountains, who have funded a dental assisting scholarship at GTCC since 2004, said they were driven to establish the new faculty endowment to help assure that GTCC maintains the ability to draw the best possible educators to the dental program.
"I'm very concerned about the looming divide between private practice and teaching and whether or not the Guilford Tech dental program can continue to attract faculty given the competition between private practice and teaching," Fountain said.
"We tried to create a forum that would supplement dental faculty income to encourage people not only to come to teach but continue to teach. That is our primary incentive with this."
"We both know what it's like to start at the beginning and work our way up," Carol Fountain said. "Despite the fact that we came from middle class families, they weren't always middle class. We're trying to help folks."
The amount of the annual award will be between $8,000 and $10,000. It may be used as a signing bonus for new faculty candidates or supplemental salary for existing faculty members.
"The Fountains have been valued members of the GTCC community for decades and have been tremendous supporters of the college," said Anthony Clarke, Ph.D., president of GTCC. "They have a great understanding of the value and importance of the college to the community and this generous endowment emphasizes that understanding.
"We will be able to use this annual award to not only help attract the best possible teaching candidates, but also help maintain our present staff. We are thankful for the Fountains and appreciate their dedication to the college greatly."
Dr. Fountain was a practicing endodontist in Greensboro for 30 years until his retirement in 2015. He served as president of Fountain, Olmsted, Torney, Mohorn, and Mohorn, an endodontic practice with offices in Greensboro, High Point, and Asheboro.
He is a graduate of Davidson College, the UNC Adams School of Dentistry in Chapel Hill, and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He is a former full-time faculty member of the UNC Adams School of Dentistry.
Fountain is the former president of the Guilford County Dental Society and the North Carolina Dental Society and served as the vice president of the American Dental Association. In addition, he served on the North Carolina State Board of Community Colleges from 2001-2015.
Carol Fountain is a graduate of Guilford College and earned a masters in chemistry from the UNC-Chapel Hill and served on the Guilford County School Board.
The Fountains have three grown children.
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