Emeritus Professor Noel Martin AM was the architect of fluoridation in this country at a time when Australian dental health was among the worst in the Western world. He studied water fluoridation, espoused its cause, spoke to all interested groups, and supported the Sydney University Dental Health Foundation and the Australian Dental Association in its efforts to have fluoridation of drinking water adopted in Sydney and by other communities around Australia.

Noel Martin entered the Faculty of Dentistry from St Joseph’s College in 1941 and immediately joined the Athletics Club. Thus in his youth began the twin passions of his University life, dentistry and sport.

He was awarded a Sporting Blue in Athletics in the 1942-43 season for outstanding performances in the high jump. In 1944 he completed his BDS degree with honours and had intended to practice but was too young for registration. On his graduation day he was asked to join the Faculty of Dentistry and the following year he was confirmed as a Lecturer in Preventive Dentistry.

Martin completed a Master of Dental Science degree in 1947. He became an Associate Professor in 1955 and then, after a posting to the University of Illinois as a Fulbright Travelling Scholar, in 1961 was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Preventive Dentistry.

For 18 years, Martin was the Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry, gaining the respect and affection of a whole generation of dentistry students. During this time, Martin also served as a Fellow of the University’s Senate from 1971-74.

Martin’s fight for the fluoridation of drinking water is widely seen as one of his greatest contributions to society. Despite his modesty and unassuming nature, he proved to be an indefatigable and very effective public advocate. He paraded the state's first fluoride generation of children, from Yass, with their white, healthy teeth. And, on April 8, 1968, fluoride trickled into Prospect reservoir to enter Sydney's drinking water. In 1979 he was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to dentistry.

His philosophy of preventive health was not only pursued in dentistry, but medicine. He was appointed President of the Community Health and Anti-Tuberculosis Association and was a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons, the American College of Dentists, the International College of Dentists, the American Public Health Association, the Royal Academy of Medicine (Ireland) and the Royal Society of Medicine (Great Britain).

He was a lifetime member of the International Association for Dental Research and the International Congress of Oral Implantologists and has received meritorious service awards from the Australian Dental Association, the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons and the International Pierre Fauchard Academy.

Over 40 years, from 1962 to 2002, Martin served both as a Senate Representative on the University of Sydney’s Sports Union’s Management Committee and as a Trustee of the same organisation. He was the Sports Union President from 1965-67. In 1983, the Sports Union recognised his four decades of service to Sydney University Sport by renaming the Darlington Sports Centre as the Noel Martin Recreation Centre. As he then continued to support the Sports Union for another 20 years, Martin was appointed Governor of Sydney University Sport in 2003.

In 2004, he was awarded an Honourary Fellowship of the University of Sydney.

Martin met Bernice Downey, an arts student, at university and they married in 1945. They had 10 children, all of whom have tertiary education. It has been said that they played Scrabble in Latin.

He was known as a very witty man and said of university types: "An academic should have a beard to make him look mature, glasses to make him look studious, and haemorrhoids to make him look concerned." And: "He uses argument much like a drunk uses a lamp post, more for support than for illumination." And: "He's so corrosive, we have to keep him in a wax bottle."

This busy man still found time to be a carpenter, lay bricks and flagging, tile walls and floors, rewire power and light circuits, correct plumbing and drainage, and improve the garden. He was sometimes found in the dental hospital's boiler room, tinkering with pressure gauges or adjusting the lighting over the technicians' work benches. He was even seen replacing hinges on cupboards in the canteen.

He passed away in July 2006 and leaves Bernice, the 10 children, grandchildren, a great grandchild, and Elizabeth Butcher, general manager of NIDA, who had lived with him since 1992.



Updated January 2007