G. Walter Dittmar

G. Walter Dittmar (1872-1949) was an American dentist.

He was born in a log cabin in Derinda, Illinois, and was educated in a one room schoolhouse.

He practiced dentistry, and went to Chicago to work with a well known dentist, Dr. Galilee. He began his own successful practice and was in the Who' Who of Chicago in 1920.

He married Agnes Catherine Dooling in Galena, Illinois in 1904. He had three children, Charlotte, Katherine, and Walter.

He began his career on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry (Chicago, Illinois, USA) in 1898. A professor and head of prosthetic dentistry, materia medica, and therapeutics, he published 43 dental research articles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

A popular teacher because of his genial personality, students considered Dittmar the father of the Department of Prosthetic Dentistry (now the Department of Restorative Dentistry) at the UIC College of Dentistry.

Dittmar achieved a national reputation as a writer, teacher, speaker, and executive, and he also made the UIC College of Dentistry a national force when he became the first president of the Illinois State Dental Society, and then later became the president of the American Dental Association, organized American dentistry's highest post.