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I love your website, just found it today, first one where the advice/topics are not superficial. Thanks!
-- Kat[Click here to read more]
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Growing up as children of Jack Drandell was like living with a celebrity, although my two brothers and I didn't know it at the time. We were known as the kids who lived in the big white house on Thayer Ave. that my dad had painted distinctly with green shutters and a red door.
We were known as the kids whose freezer was always stocked with bagels and rye bread, and the family that gave out toothbrushes, instead of candy, to trick-or-treaters on Halloween.
By the time we entered junior high school, we began to be "spotted" by our classmates after attendance was taken. They would ask me, "Are you Dr. Drandell's daughter?" After answering in the affirmative, I was frequently told, "Well, he's my orthodontist, and he's so mean! The last time I saw him he tightened my braces so tight, and he didn't care!" But after people heard my last name when I was in college and graduate school, they would show me their teeth and say, "Look, your dad gave me the nicest smile."
Jack Drandell, D.D.S. was born in 1924 in Struthers, Ohio, the youngest child of Mary and Harry Drandell, who had previously immigrated separately from Poland with their daughter Freda. Along with his older brother, Milton, the family survived the depression and eventually settled in Dallas, Texas.
Jack attended Southern Methodist University where he obtained a Bachelor's degree in Engineering. He moved to Los Angeles, California and worked for North American Rockwell, designing state-of-the-art airplanes. It was while in Los Angeles that he met and married my mother, Annette, who had earned a master's degree in nutrition and dietetics from UCLA. Jack and Annette settled in Los Angeles and started their family, and I was their firstborn.
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At the age of 29, dissatisfied with engineering, Jack decided to apply to dental school, and at the age of 30, with his wife and young infant daughter (me), moved to San Francisco to attend the University of California, San Francisco to obtain his D.D.S. degree in dentistry, with a specialty in orthodontics. My brothers Jeff and Mike arrived shortly thereafter, completing our family.
After graduation, my dad hung up his shingle and became a well-known and respected orthodontist in the Westwood section of Los Angeles for over 40 years. In the 1980's he opened another office in Santa Barbara, California, where he commuted to every other week.
My dad did not leave his engineering experience entirely. He was an inventor, designing various appliances to enhance the efficiency of his office. Most notably, he was a co-creator of MacBraces, a computer software program designed to run orthodontic offices on the Macintosh. He enjoyed traveling across the country demonstrating and talking about the system to other orthodontists.
My father was well-respected and liked by his colleagues, with whom he enjoyed professional, and personal, relationships, many lasting over 45 years.
However, I believe that my father's most important accomplishment was as a loving and devoted husband. The "life partnership" he created and maintained with our mother lasted for 53 years. He loved her, and worked hard to please her, even when she was hard to please. And he did so without complaining.
He was a true family man -- we had dinner together every night at 6:30 pm, took family vacations twice a year, and he scrutinized every report card, encouraging and expecting us to do our best.
Together with my mother, they presented a "united front" -- he always sided with my mother in an argument, which wasn't a very popular position with us kids. But now, as a mother of children myself, I can see the wisdom in his approach.
In my line of business, I talk with people about their relationships all the time. It's well-known that relationship behavior is modeled by the people we're closest to. Having witnessed how my parents interacted with each other, and loved each other, I learned what it took to have a healthy and happy marriage. I know that my brother's wife Audrey, and my husband Richard, benefit from our experiences.
Up to the end of my father's life, my mother was there for my father 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, giving him her love, attention, loyalty and devotion. She too recognized that he was a "celebrity," someone who's life should be celebrated, in sickness as well as in health. So while our hearts break for losing our father, grandfather, uncle, colleague and friend, our mother's heart breaks for losing a loving husband and partner.
He will be remembered by many with love, and missed with great sadness.
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Posted by: Janice on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 05:00 AM
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