Dr. Martha Howard Fales

1916 - 2018

Dr. Martha Howard Fales

Dr. Martha Howard Fales, retired longtime chair of the University of Washington Department of Dental Hygiene, died peacefully April 29, 2018, in Olympia, just weeks before her 102nd birthday.

Dr. Fales joined the UW faculty in 1959, serving as Dental Hygiene Department chair from 1961 to 1986. Throughout her entire career, she provided leadership on current public health and dental hygiene issues, while also providing a quality bachelors degree in dental hygiene at the UW. Her doctoral degree, which she earned from the University of Michigan in 1975, focused on the history of dental hygiene education.

Born on June 8, 1916, in Ludington, Michigan, to Mabel (Shugars) and Peters Howard, she also earned bachelor and master degrees from the University of Michigan. She met Kenneth Frank Fales, whom she married in 1946, while working as a field hygienist in Maine. They settled in Connecticut and later Massachusetts, until Kenneth suggested they move across the country when he received a job offer at Boeing.

They lived in Bellevue and, in 1970, moved to the Montlake home so Dr. Fales could walk to work each day. Kenneth became involved in neighborhood, city and state issues, while his wife continued to teach at the UW. Dr. Fales became professor emeritus in 1986, continuing to lecture and champion dental education. Her husband passed away in 2006.

Dr. Fales is survived by her daughter, Jane Fales Goldberg, and son-in-law, Larry, of Aberdeen, Washington; four grandchildren, Amy Goldberg Rowley (Scott) of Olympia, Carrie Goldberg of Brooklyn, New York, David Goldberg (JJ) of Seattle, and Lauren Goldberg of Los Angeles, California; and five great-grandchildren.

A private family observance is planned. The family suggests that friends and colleagues make memorial donations to their favorite charities.

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