Service to Patients and the Profession: John Feeney, DDS’75

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: At CDM Reunion Day 2023, John Feeney, DDS’75, was recognized with the Distinguished Alumni Award, which was only the most recent of the many honors and awards he has received over the course of his distinguished career. Now retired from almost 40 years as an oral maxillofacial surgeon, Dr. Feeney is a past president of the New Jersey Society of Oral Maxillofacial Surgeons, the New Jersey Dental Society of Anesthesiology, and the New Jersey Foundation of Dentistry for the Disabled. 

It's clear, both because of his passion for service and because of the recognitions that his service has earned him, that Dr. Feeney believes health care providers have an obligation to “advocate for the health, safety and wellbeing of our patients.” Accepting the award, Dr. Feeney drew a straight line from Hippocrates to the alumni of CDM. “Hippocrates was a maverick of his time,” Feeney said. “He declared that as important as it is to know the disease a patient has, it is more important to know the patient who has the disease.”

CDM’s Distinguished Alumni Award is only the latest of Feeney’s long list of honors, which also includes the American Association of Oral Maxillofacial Surgeons National Humanitarian Award for Volunteerism and Community Service, the New Jersey Dental Association Presidential Award for Community Service, the New Jersey Dental Association Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Service to the Profession and the Citizens of New Jersey, and the American Association of Oral Maxillofacial Surgeons Governmental Affairs Advocacy Award.

Feeney, who says that he is very proud of his Columbia degree — he calls it “an exalted professional credential” — quoted Mark Twain, who wrote that the two most important days of anyone’s life are “the day you were born and the day you find out why.” It’s very clear that Dr. Feeney has figured out his “why,” and has spent his long, successful career in the service of that purpose.