Gertrude Tank Oral History Interview

In this interview, Gertrude Tank talks about working as a dentist and later as a dental researcher at Oregon State University. She begins by discussing the dental clinic that she ran in Philadelphia for twenty-seven years. She decided to change jobs when the clinic was moved into a hospital, since she believed that the new location was not suitable for her patients or for her business. She received an offer to work at Oregon State and recalls Dr. Clara Storvick coming to Philadelphia to interview her. She notes that when she worked at OSU, within the School of Home Economics, Dean Ava Milam Clark was just stepping down from her position and the deans that followed were Dr. Vera Brandon, Miriam Schull, and Betty Hawthorne. Tank was born in Stuttgart, Germany and after high school she trained as a nurse in an infant hospital in Munich. She explains that when she moved to the United States, she originally planned to study at the University of Pennsylvania, until she learned that the university did not accept female students. Tank instead enrolled at Temple University. She was the only female in her class and admits she enjoyed the attention she got as a result.

Tank then moves on to discuss the research she carried out at OSU, explaining that she was interested in the properties of fluoride, selenium and vanadium in relation to dental health. Dr. Storvick, the head of research in the School of Home Economics, gave her lots of freedom to complete her research because she was the only dentist at OSU. Tank then talks about her hobby of mountain climbing. She last hiked in 1974 at age eighty-two. She has climbed in the Austrian Alps, Swiss Alps, Colorado Rockies, Canadian Rockies and also Mt. Fujiyama. She describes her experience climbing Mt. Fujiyama in great detail. Tank goes on to talk about other hobbies of hers, like cooking. She also reflects on her membership on the Dental Council for the Benton County Nursing Homes and her frustration with the system when it came to working with people who did not have access to proper dental care. The interview concludes with Tank mentioning that she divorced her husband in Germany, moved to the U.S. with her daughter. and now has great grandchildren.