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Larkin bids farewell
Every fall since 1972, Lynn Larkin, Ph.D., professor emeritus of anatomy and cell biology, has welcomed a class of freshman dental students into his anatomy course. In fact, Larkin has taught gross anatomy to every UF dental student since the college’s charter class—that’s nearly 2,100 dentists.
But, the class of 2010 was the last of dentistry’s freshman classes Larkin would teach the differences between a sphenoid and a mandibular notch. On June 30th, Larkin is retiring from his 39-year teaching career.
“I’ve really enjoyed teaching here,” Larkin said. “There are lots of things to like in Florida, and the students are bright and fun to be around.” Originally from Ohio, Larkin earned his Ph.D. in anatomy from the University of Colorado Medical Center in Denver, Colo. in 1967. After one year post-doctoral work in Boulder, Larkin came to teach in the department of anatomy and cell biology at the UF College of Medicine, and he never left. In 1997 Larkin retired as professor emeritus, but was hired on a yearly basis to teach dental students at the College of Dentistry.
“Each school has its own personality. The physician assistant students are older and more experienced, while most of the dental students are just out of college and very social. It’s a fun group.” Though fun, anatomy is not an easy class to teach. It’s difficult to visualize the tissues underneath the skin and you’ll need the memory of a spelling bee champion to remember all the terms. To help students grasp perceptual knowledge of the human body, Larkin developed a syllabus looking more like a “coloring book.” It’s a workbook that contains all the lecture diagrams. As the semester goes along, the instructor discusses and labels each diagram in different colors while students do the same on their copies. It keeps the students involved and the lecturer on track. The colors they use—red, brown, and, of course, orange and blue.
During his 35 years of teaching at the college, Larkin has won dentistry’s Teacher of the Year Award twice, in 1992 and 1994. He is one of the few outside faculty members that have been given this prestigious award. Larkin has educated two generations of Florida dentists, including Dennis Connaughton of the Delta Class (’79) and daughter Kelly Connaughton, class of 2008, who are both impressed by his approachable personality.
“To me it’s hard to get excited about working on cadavers 8 o’clock in the morning, but knowing that Dr. Larkin was going to be there made that journey a lot easier,” Kelly Connaughton said. “If it were anybody else, I don’t think I would have the same experience.”
Kelly’s father, Dennis, took Larkin’s class in 1975. Interestingly, Connaughton now teaches anatomy class at Brevard Community College in Cocoa, FL. When asked about Larkin’s teaching style, “relaxed” was the word that came to Connaughton’s mind.
“Dr. Larkin was always smiling, always with a good attitude. He never made us feel intimidated to approach him and ask a question. It was a very relaxed lab session and a lot of it had to do with Dr. Larkin.”
Though a professor of the classic Gray’s Anatomy, Larkin is not a fan of TV Land’s “Grey’s Anatomy” on ABC. He said even if he watches the show, it’s not for the anatomy in it. But he did find the “goofy intern getting into troubles show” on Comedy Central amusing (“Scrubs”).
Having retired in 1997 and working six months out of the year since then, Larkin said he has had a taste of retirement.
“I’ve been practicing for 10 years,” Larkin teased. “And I know I won’t miss getting up at 6 for the 8 o’clock class.”
No more skulls or skeletons, Larkin will be working on his old cars or boating on the Suwannee River. To him, life after anatomy class is—enjoyable.
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