The Society traces its origins to a luncheon hosted by Dr. Victor Hugo Sears on October 15, 1955, at the Fairborn Hotel in San Francisco, California, during the annual American Dental Association meeting. At this gathering, attended by approximately 25 individuals, the decision was made to form a group dedicated to studying the temporomandibular joint and related structures. It was agreed that the term "equilibration" would be central to the group's focus, and plans were set for a future meeting to officially establish the society.
On Thanksgiving Day of the same year, Dr. Sears met with Dr. A. Alfred Nelson and Dr. Chester Perry at Dr. Perry’s home in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, to define the criteria for the new society. Alongside these three founding members, Dr. Willie B. May, Dr. Clyde Townsend Mayfield, and Dr. James B. Costen constituted the first Executive Council.
The Society's inaugural organizational and scientific meeting took place in February 1956, coinciding with the Chicago Mid-Winter Meeting. Despite initially reserving a room for 40 attendees, over 100 individuals registered, demonstrating a clear and enthusiastic interest in the field of occlusion and related subjects. This overwhelming response confirmed that the time was indeed right for the formation of the American Equilibration Society!
AES Past Presidents
Victor H. Sears . . . . . . . . . . 1956,1957,1958
Alfred Nelson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1959, 1960
Rudolph P. Gingrass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1961
William W. Hurst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1962
Chester K. Perry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1963
Herbert T. Kelly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1964
Stanley D. Tylman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1965
David J. Goodfriend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1966
Homer C. Vaughan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1967
Joseph R. Jarabak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1968
Jerome M. Schweitzer. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1969
Muller M. DeVan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1970
Raymond C. Van Dam. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1971
James H. Long, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1972
Dewey H. Bell, Jr.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1973
Dayton D. Krajicek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1974
William G. Woods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1975
Louis C. Smith, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1976
Louis J. Boucher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1977
Henry E. Ebel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1978
Robert H. Sprigg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1979
Carl E. Rieder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1980
Kenneth D. Rudd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1981
Harold Gelb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1982
Peter E. Dawson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1983
Peter A. Neff. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1984
Niles F. Guichet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1985
Richard E. Coy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1986
Edward L. Rose, Jr.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1987
John N. Nasedkin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1988
Myron S. Winer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1989
M. Maxwell Sullivan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1990
Gabriel R. Coulon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1991
William H. Lady . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1992
Nasser Barghi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1993
Kenneth S. Rotskoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1994
Riley H. Lunn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1995
William D. Sulik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1996
John W. Bassett. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1997
Teri-Ross Icyda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1998
Asterios Doukoudakis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1999
Shawky E. Mohamed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2000
Michael Vold. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2001
Clifford W. Fox, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2002
Lawrence R. Huber. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2003
H. Kenneth Jackier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2004
Henry A. Gremillion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2005
Bernard T. Williams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2006
James R. McKee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2007
Ransom Altman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2008
Michael Barnett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2009
Ronald Taylor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2010
De Witt Wilkerson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2011
J. Terry Green. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2012
David Hancock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2013
James Buckman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2014
Ken Peters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .2015
Jacob Park. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .2016
Michael Racich. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2017
Robert Frazer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2018
Warren Jesek. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2019
Curt Ringhofer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2020
Stanley Nelson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2021
Keith Kinderknecht. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2022
Andrea Taylor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2023
Lawrence Morris. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2024
Jason Luchtefeld. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2025