Celebrating Dental Hygiene
on the Poca River
The Poca Post is pleased to announce a new issue commemorating Prof. Alexis Flossing. Prof. Flossing was active as an academic in the School of
Dentistry at West Virginia Institute of Technology from 1933 through 1949. In
1949 Prof. Flossing was informed that he was heir to a very large fortune.
His uncle, Flaubert Flossing of North Carolina, had died and left
considerable holdings to his nephew. This
made Prof. Flossing financially independent, and he left his faculty position
to return to his hometown of Eleanor-on-the-Poca. Prof. Flossing then devoted himself to traveling to the
public schools up and down the Poca River.
He visited classes preaching the virtues of dental hygiene.
He became affectionately known as Prof. Alexis by all of the students
in the Poca River Valley. There
was no end to his energy: from
fall through spring Prof. Alexis could be seen in his old automobile, with a
large toothbrushes painted on the sides, going from one end of the Poca River
to the other, giving his message to any school class that would have him.
No doubt many children grew up with healthy teeth as a result of the
lessons taught by Prof. Alexis. In
recent years social anthropologists have noted a substantial increase in the
rate of marriage between young people along the Poca River between the years
1949 and 1960 (the year that Prof. Alexis retired).
No doubt, this was the result of the improved quality of the dental
hygiene among the young people who had heeded Prof. Alexis’ lessons. Prof. Alexis passed away at his home in
Eleanor-on-the-Poca in 1962. His
hometown erected a large toothbrush in honor of Prof. Alexis Flossing.
It stands today on the east bank of the Poca River where it can be
viewed by visitors. The stamp was issued in a plate of 20 stamps in the denomination of 1.95 poca units. |