Willard B. Ver Meulen; Dentist, Crusader for Fluoridation
Willard B. Ver Meulen, 96, who prompted the nation’s first fluoridated city water supply. Ver Meulen, a dentist, had found in his practice that fluoridation had such dramatic results that he could spot people who used it just by glancing at their teeth. So he prodded political officeholders to treat the water of Grand Rapids, Mich. Ver Meulen also joined a political unknown named Gerald R. Ford and others to form the Kent County Home Front Republican organization. On Nov. 18 in Grand Rapids, Mich.
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