Martin T Tyler:  

BIOGRAPHY Martin T. Tyler was born in Nashville, Tennessee and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. After enjoying athletic success in the Cincinnati public schools and receiving the All-Around Athlete Award, he entered Ohio University and majored in Zoology in the pre-dentistry program. While at Ohio University, Martin was a member of the Ohio University track and field team, a member of the judo team, president of the pledge club of Kappa Alpha Psi social fraternity, and he became a charter member of the Epsilon Lambda chapter of that organization. After being graduated from Ohio University, Martin completed his dentistry studies at Howard University and completed a dental internship at McGill University. After internship, Dr. Tyler entered the U.S. Navy, with tours in Newport, R.I., three years in Sidi Yahia, Morocco, Great Lakes, IL, and at the Navy Post-Graduate Dental School in Bethesda, Maryland. He was the first African American to be accepted for a residency in the specialty of Oral Medicine at the Navy’s prestigious post-graduate dental school, The National Naval Dental Center, Bethesda. Upon graduation, he was selected from his class of thirty dental residents to receive the Research Award and successfully completed the Boards in the dental specialties of both of Oral Medicine and Oral Radiology. He was then the first African American appointed to the full-time teaching faculty in its 65-year history; the Naval Dental School opened in 1912. While being retained to teach in the post-graduate program of the National Naval Post Graduate Dental School at Bethesda and serving as visiting professor at his Alma Mater, Howard University, Dr. Tyler was recruited by the McGill University Faculty of Dentistry. He became the first African American to have a full-time position and head a division in the McGill University Faculty of Dentistry. After his nine years of active service in the Navy, he continued service in the U.S. Navy Reserve. He commuted monthly from Montreal to New York City for seven years and, after serving as the Commanding Officer of the dental unit at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, he transferred to the Naval Reserve Center in Vermont and served as the only dental officer of the center. Dr. Tyler retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve with 28 years of Navy service and was awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Armed Forces Reserve Medal, and the Navy/Marine Corps Overseas Service ribbon before he was honorably discharged with the rank of Navy Captain (0-6). Captain Tyler continues his dedication to his country and to the U.S. Navy with his membership in the Retired Minority Naval Dental Officers Association, where he is a charter member. The goal of that organization is to offer guidance to minority U.S. Navy dental officers seeking a successful military career. Successfully managing two careers, Dr. Tyler’s principal career was professor of Oral Medicine at McGill University’s Faculty of Dentistry and operating a primary referral Oral Medicine practice in Montreal. In that capacity, his expertise was in the diagnosis and management of oral disease and the oral management of patients with medically complex diseases. Dr. Tyler became a tenured professor at McGill, taught full-time for 22 years, and upon retirement from full-time teaching, he was unanimously nominated by the 2003 graduating class of McGill dental students to receive the W.W. Wood Award—a national Canadian award for teaching excellence sponsored by the Association of Canadian Faculties of Dentistry. After retiring from full-time teaching, Professor Tyler continued to volunteer to direct the McGill dental residents in the care of oral cancer patients at the Montreal General Hospital. (MGH) and later at the newly built McGill University Health Cente...Expand for more