History

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