ALICE A. TRONQUET, DENTAL HYGIENE CLASS OF 1956
Alice Ann Weirich Tronquet, an early UW dental hygiene faculty member who taught radiology and helped produce an award-winning film about careers in dental hygiene, passed away peacefully on Oct. 30, 2011 in Seattle. She was 90. A funeral service was celebrated on Nov. 12 at St. Bridget’s Catholic Church in Seattle. Remembrances may be made to St. Francis House, 169 12th Ave., Seattle, WA 98122.
As a seven-year resident living independently at University House Wallingford, Ms. Tronquet enjoyed her friends and was active academically, politically and culturally.
“Dental hygiene lost a dear friend with the passing of Alice Tronquet,” said Patty Doyle, a member of the UW Oral Health Collaborative and dental hygiene alumna, Class of ’65. “As a mother with two young children, Alice graduated from the University of Washington Dental Hygiene Program in 1956 and became one of the school’s first dental hygiene faculty, teaching radiology during the tenure of Dr. Esther Wilkins, who had founded the UW’s Dental Hygiene Program in 1949.”
Ms. Tronquet taught and then practiced dental hygiene until the early 1980s.
She was a past president and life member of the Washington State Dental Hygienists’ Association (WSDHA) and a longtime member of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA). During the 1960s, in collaboration with the ADHA, she chaired the WSDHA committee that produced the first and only film about careers in dental hygiene, A Bright Future.
“This film won a Golden Eagle Award from the National Geographic Society in 1965 as the best motivational/educational film of the year,” said Ms. Doyle. “Alice accepted the award in Washington, D.C., on behalf of ADHA. She invested her strength and her knowledge in the cause that was dear to her heart, dental hygiene, and for that she will always be remembered.”
Ms. Tronquet was a Peronteau Club member who worked diligently on behalf of the Catholic Church.
She is survived by her daughter, Laurel; sons Mick and Peter; grandchildren Kaitie, Sarah, Chris, Meg and Melissa; and a bevy of friends old, young and in-between.