The Williams family has one of the longest-running legacies of family dental practices in the country. This family tradition in Dentistry began in 1897 with William Sherman Williams who received his Doctorate of Dental Surgery from Vanderbilt.
William Sherman went on to practice dentistry in Durant, I.T. (Indian Territory) where he was later elected as the President of the Oklahoma State Dental Association and serve 9 years running.
The second floor of the Decatur Antiques building is where William Sherman and his brother James Roland began their practice together. James Roland Williams graduated with his Doctorate of Dental Surgery from Louisville College of Dentistry in 1901, and after moved to Oklahoma to help build the family’s practice. The family practice expanded when in 1922 William Sherman Williams’ son John Edward graduated from Baylor College of Dentistry to start the second generation of dental practice for the family.
John Edward Williams was soon joined in this second generation when in 1926 his younger brother Phillip Earle received his Doctorate of Dental Surgery from Baylor in 1926.
Dr. Phillip Earle Williams was one of the truly great, nationally recognized oral surgeons of the 20th century. He gradu
ated from Baylor University College of Dentistry in 1926 and went on to graduate from his Oral Surgery Residency from Cook County Hospital with a Masters in Dentistry from Northwestern University in 1933.
He practiced in Oklahoma for a number of years before moving back to Dallas in 1946 to begin teaching part-time on the oral surgery faculty at Baylor Dental College and becoming one of the first Board Certified in Oral Surgeons in Texas.
He also taught at Parkland Hospital and was the chief of the oral surgery service there from 1947 to 1956. Dr. Williams has served as president of the Dallas County Dental Society and Texas Dental Association, vice president of the American Dental Association, president of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (the only person to serve 2 terms), and president of the American College of Dentists.
He was the Texas Dental Association dentist of the year in 1974–1975 and received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Baylor College of Dentistry in 1975. The national meeting of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) was dedicated to him in 1979. He received the President’s Award of the Texas Dental Association in 1980. He was inducted into the Baylor College of Dentistry Hall of Fame in 1986.
Dr. Earle’s son, Dr. Craig Williams, graduated from Baylor College of Dentistry in 1972 and completed his oral and maxillofacial surgery training at Southwestern Medical School and Parkland Hospital in 1976. Dr. Craig has been on the part-time faculty in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Baylor College of Dentistry since 1978.
In 2009, Dr. Craig Williams received the Baylor College of Dentistry Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Award for Excellence in Education.
Dr. Todd Andrew Williams is the fourth generation of Dental practice for the Williams Family. Dr. Todd graduated with His Doctorate of Dental Surgery from Baylor College of Dentistry in 2005 and like his Father and grand-father before him Dr. Todd went on to complete an Oral Surgery Residency in Louisiana State University in 2013. Dr. Todd A. Williams and Dr. Craig E. Williams currently practice Oral Surgery together in their Dallas office.