Dixon dental office closes after over a century of drilling and filling – Shaw Local

DIXON – After 123 years of service, Drs. The Brokaw & German dental office at 123 S. Hennepin Ave. closed its doors Thursday.

First opened in 1901 by Dr. Willard Joseph Worsley, the practice was kept open over the decades by eight different dentists, including his son, Dr. Raymond Worsley.

Now, after 21 years of collaboration, Drs. Kim Brokaw and Mark German – the dentists who now run the business – are retiring and have closed the doors.

Sarah Leonard, who has written a history of the practice, said the two cap a long line of dentists who have run the practice. Willard Worsley continued to practice dentistry until four weeks before he died in 1947. Raymond added Dr. Jeremy Voss in the practice in 1949. However, Voss was called to serve in the Army Dental Corps in France from 1953 to 1955, when Dr. Robert E. Danskin took over the care of his patients.

Dunskin returned to Montana after Voss returned from the service. Voss was an early proponent of the use of fluoride to help prevent tooth decay and often spoke on the subject at local organizations before his death in 1959 at the age of 37. His death left an opening in the practice and Willard Worsley soon welcomed Dr. F. Kennedy Slack in practice.

Willard Worsley died in 1973 after a prolonged illness, after which Slack acquired the business and ran it alone for several years. Slack brought Dr. Dana Stonesifer in 1981 before retiring in 1983 and eventually moving to North Carolina.

Leonard said several Dixon dentists retired in the early 1980s, leaving Stonesifer with an abundance of patients and the need for another dentist. That’s when Dixon resident Brokaw, one of the current interns, joined the practice.

Until this point, the dental office operated out of the second floor of a building on Second Street just west of the First Baptist Church and north of the old Lee County Courthouse. During this time, plans were underway to widen Second Street and add a turn lane to Galena Avenue, requiring the removal of buildings west of First Baptist.

So Stonesifer and Brokaw decided to buy the lot in North Hennepin, where the practice is currently located. They soon welcomed the German and officially opened their new clinic in the summer of 1985. Business continued as usual until Stonesifer died of renal cell carcinoma in 2003, at which point the practice endured a difficult period of adjustment, even bringing Brokaw’s daughter, Dr. Kate Brokaw , to help out for a while.

Leonard credits the long-term success and continuity of the practice through most of these transitions to Magdalene Ulferts, a receptionist and dental assistant who was hired by Ray Worsley in 1959 and who worked at the practice for more than 50 years. Affectionately known as “Peg,” Leonard said Ulferts helped smooth transitions between several dentists while maintaining positive relationships with patients.