Retirement Day: Dixon dental practice closes after over a century of drilling and filling

DIXON – After 123 years of service, the Drs. Brokaw & German dental practice at 123 S. Hennepin Ave. closed its doors Thursday.

The practice, which was first opened in 1901 by Dr. Willard Joseph Worsley, was kept open over the decades by eight different dentists, including his son, Dr. Raymond Worsley.

Now, after 21 years of working together, Drs. Kim Brokaw and Mark German – the dentists now running the business – are retiring and have closed the doors.

Sarah Leonard, who has written a history about the practice, said the two cap a long line of dentists who ran the practice. Willard Worsley continued to practice dentistry until only four weeks before he died in 1947. Raymond added Dr. Jeremy Voss to the practice in 1949. However, Voss was called to serve in the Army Dental Corps in France from 1953 to 1955, at which point Dr. Robert E. Danskin assumed care for his patients.

Danskin went back to Montana after Voss returned from service. Voss was an early promoter of using fluoride to help prevent cavities and often spoke on the subject to local organizations before passing away in 1959 at the age of 37. His death left an opening in the practice, and Willard Worsley soon welcomed Dr. F. Kennedy Slack to the practice.

Willard Worsley died in 1973 after a prolonged illness, after which Slack acquired the business and practiced alone for several years. Slack brought on Dr. Dana Stonesifer in 1981 before retiring in 1983 and eventually moving to North Carolina.

Leonard said several Dixon dentists retired in the early 1980s, leaving Stonesifer with an abundance of patients and a need for another dentist. That’s when Dixon resident Brokaw, one of the current practitioners, joined the practice.

Until this point, the dental practice had operated out of the second floor of a building on Second Street just west of the First Baptist Church and north of the old Lee County Courthouse. During this time, plans were unfolding to widen Second Street and add a turn lane onto Galena Avenue, requiring buildings west of First Baptist to be removed.

So, Stonesifer and Brokaw decided to purchase the lot on North Hennepin, where the practice currently stands. They soon welcomed German and officially opened their new clinic in summer 1985. Business carried on as usual until Stonesifer died from renal cell carcinoma in 2003, at which point the practice endured a difficult adjustment period, even bringing in Brokaw’s daughter, Dr. Kate Brokaw, to help for awhile.

Leonard credits the long-term success and continuation of the practice during most of these transitions to Magdalene Ulferts, a receptionist and dental assistant who was hired by Ray Worsley in 1959 and who worked for the practice for more than 50 years. Affectionately known as “Peg,” Leonard said Ulferts helped ease the transitions between multiple dentists while maintaining positive relationships with patients.