A Collingwood dentist who practised for 47 years never turned away a patient.
We sat down with Dr. Farel Anderson, a longtime Collingwood dentist who has served on many boards, councils and committees since moving to the area in the 1960s.
Q: What originally brought you to Collingwood?
A: I came to Canada in 1955. I went to the University of Guelph where I did a bachelor’s degree in agriculture. From there, in 1961, I worked for the university for a year. In 1962, I went to the University of Toronto where I went to the faculty of dentistry. I graduated in ’66.
I came to Collingwood in 1966. I came here because there were only two dentists in town at the time. The youngest one had graduated the year before me and I knew him in school. He was planning to go away to Yugoslavia for three months. At that point, I didn’t know what I was doing... whether I was going to go back to Jamaica or continue working.
At that point I was just relaxing because nine years of study was pretty long.
He said, “Would you like to come and run my practice for three months while I go?”
I said, great. It was a great opportunity, especially to see a part of Canada I hadn’t seen before. I took him up on the offer.
After the three months... I decided that I would come to Collingwood (to live).
So, then I started my practice. I haven’t looked back.
I was on the main street for about 18 years until there was a fire and I got burnt out. It was in a building next to the town hall. The fire was in 1983.
I re-established my practice at Napier and Hume streets in 1985.
Dentistry has been a big part of me. It took me a while to get there because I went into dentistry when I was 28 or 29 years old. I was much older than the younger students.
The reason for that is, my beginnings were very penurious.
My parents weren’t able to send me to get the necessary education, high school, at an early age. I sort of had to work myself up.
When I came to Collingwood it was smaller.... there were only 8,000 people here at that time.
Q: When you moved to Collingwood in the 1960s, what were your impressions of it then?
A: My impressions at that time were, it was a typical small town. It was like a small town in Jamaica; the greenery, the hills, the mountains, the roads. It sort of reminded me of Jamaica.
I’ve lived on Fourth Street for all these years. Same house. Fourth Street was just a gravel road then. You’d drive down and stones would be splashing all around. It wasn’t well-developed; empty lots and smaller war-time homes here and there.
Typical small town, you want to get involved with people, and I am that type of a guy. I want to be a friend to everybody. (laughs)
I joined the (Canadian) Cancer Society, the CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) group, the learning disability group. I got myself involved in organizations that were charitable types and I worked very hard for those groups, because I enjoy it.
Dentistry is something I’m blessed with the ability to do and communicate with people. Both areas were good for me, both working with people and working in my profession.
I was a dentist for 45 years.
I was on (Collingwood) council for a couple of terms in the ’70s. I was in charge of the fire (department), and I was a deputy for the police department as a council member. There were seven councillors in those days, just as there are today. The fire hall and the whole development of the fire department, I was a part of that in the early ’70s. Then, I got unmotivated with council and politics. I preferred to be focused on my dentistry and my patients.
My period on town council wasn’t as rewarding as I expected it to be.
Q: Tell me a little bit more about your practice, and your philosophy of care. What makes you so passionate about dentistry?
A: Ever since I was about 13 years old, I told my parents I wanted to be a dentist.
Since they didn’t have the financial means to get me there, I had to do it in a piecemeal fashion.
After I got my bachelor’s, I got married.
My wife had her master’s degree at Guelph. We both came to Collingwood at that time.
My wife said, “Whatever you want to do now, we’ll do it.”
So, I applied to dentistry. It must have been tucked in the back of my brain since I was 13 years old. (laughs)
All my energy and focus went into that.
People said I could make money, but that wasn’t really my concern. It was just something I thought I could do well. Patients, to me, were like my family. I had compassion for whatever socioeconomic level the person was at. I don’t treat people based on how much they can give me in return.
Many times I did dentistry free of cost.
I was the dentist in town who, all the other dentists would send patients on Ontario Works or disability. The reason being, these people generally don’t pay. The government paid for them but never paid the full amount for a filling or extraction. I couldn’t tell someone I was going to send them away.
I feel that you have a responsibility to the public or people who are impoverished, to help them out in those cases.
I love children. Not for long, 15 minutes is alright. (laughs)
I enjoy kids as patients. I bend down and talk to them in a kids way. Some of them were very scared and I tried hard to ease that apprehension. I got involved in daycare centres getting kids to come to my office to show them all the devices we use. I did that for a number of years. I also went to all the public schools in town to interact with them in terms of a dental experience. It’s called Brush-a-mania.
I enjoy people.
My main thrust is to relate to people. It doesn’t matter who. I do whatever I can to help in any way I can.
Q: You also have an interest in art. What drives that interest? What kind of art inspires you?
A: Art, to me, is about learning about the world and seeing what nature has to offer; seeing life transformed on paper. It’s not just a part of being a human being. It’s a part of everything we see.
It also helps to make us regard life as something dynamic, tangible and we are a part of. We are not separate human beings to the trees, to the stones... we’re all a part of that, everything together.
Moreso, I enjoy landscapes. I like the trees, water, snow... that art really responds to my interests.
I must have spent thousands of dollars buying art.
I realize I can’t keep them all... we only have so many walls in our home, so I started to think, what can I do with them?
I like to give money (to various causes) around town but I (realized), I’d never given to Hospice (Georgian Triangle). This was a good thing I could do.
Labour Day weekend last year I sold about half of them and I made $7,500 and gave it all to Hospice (Georgian Triangle).
Some of them were by local artists, one or two from Barrie, some from Aurora. There’s a story for every painting that was sold, people appreciate that, too, when they buy.
Q: What made you decide to retire?
A: I retired three or four years ago. That’s a hard question, loving dentistry so much. (laughs)
You know, you reach a point in life where, you feel satisfied that you have given back to society, some of what you’ve gained over your life.
It had reached that point.
I felt at that time I was getting to a point where the interest was sort of failing just a little bit. I wasn’t as keen about things as I would have normally been.
An associate came up and said he really wanted my office. His wife was a dentist too.
Maybe that got me more interested (in retirement) because he came and wanted to buy within a few months. So I sold.
There’s an internal clock that’s telling you. It had been 47 years doing this.
I wanted to sit myself down to write a book about my life. I haven’t got very far with that. It’s hard, writing a book! I thought it would be an easy thing because I’d had it in my mind for a very long time, but it’s very difficult.
What do I write that people would want to read, or be interested in reading? I have writer’s block. I’ve been there for about a year now, but I still have that determination that I’m going to do it.
