The photograph below features Cheddi Jagan, DDS (1918-1997), President of Guyana, at the April 1996 reception in the President’s House in Georgetown hosting a delegation of Health Volunteers Overseas/Dentistry who contributed to the first meeting of the Guyanese Dental Association. Dr. Eugenio Beltran presented the results of the 1995 National Oral Health Surv-

Eugenio Beltran, Cheddi Jagan, Rosalie Warpeha  (Photo & text courtesy of Eugenio)

At Cheddi’s left is Sister Rosalie Warpeha, DDS (1942-2006), known as “Sister Doctor.”  Rosalie was a Marist Missionary Sister who received her dental degree from the University of Minnesota. She was a member of a “dental family” that included her father and one brother. Her brother was the Chief Dental Officer of Jamaica and was the champion behind the successful Jamaican national salt fluoridation program. 

One other dentist was elected president of a foreign nation: Dr. Héctor Campora was president of Argentina for a few months in 1973. He resigned to allow Juan Domingo Perón and his third wife Isabel Perón to run for President and Vice President of Argentina after Peron’s exile.