William Swearingen

I have been involved with a lot of activities since high school. I was slow making progress but eventually got my B.S and Masters Degrees in Business in 1969 and 1970. I worked for Memorex and IBM for a short while and then switched my direction and graduated in 1975 from the Univ. of California Dental School. I then spent a year in San Diego in a residency program in the US Navy and then my family and I were sent to Japan where I practiced dentistry for 4 years on a US Naval base. Upon returning to the US in 1980 I began the pursuit of my own private dental practice from which I retired in 2012. From about 1997 until I retired I focused my practice on cosmetic dentistry and became one of only 2 dentists accredited by the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry in the Sacramento area. I currently am still practicing cosmetic dentistry 1 day a week for the lady that brought my dental practice and teach a dental course 2 weekends a month.

I have many fond memories of high school (and some not so fond - ha). One I remember now as football season is approaching is how did we all survive football back in those days? We were doing everything wrong! It was taboo to drink water while we were practicing. I remember how good the water tasted when we ran into the shower after practice and began guzzling the water. The face masks we wore were minimal to none - most with 1 bar across our mouth. It was common practice to go headfirst at people with the flimsy helmets we wore. How did we survive with no broken necks and no one dying of heat strokes when we often practiced twice a day during the 100 degree summers? Thank goodness we all survived!