University of Chicago - Department of Surgery

The Founder-

Walter G Zoller

Born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania in 1867, Walter G. Zoller was the son of Frank and Annabella (Warbrooke) Zoller. In the old Pennsylvania "Dutch" (Deutsch) environment where he grew to young manhood, Walter Zoller acquired such intrinsic characteristics as personal frugality tempered with altruistic generosity.

After completing his education in the local public schools, young Walter Zoller followed Horace Greeley's much heralded advice of the time--to "go West, young man, go West". Mr. Zoller made his way west to Peoria where he began work as a telegraph operator with the Chicago, Pekin and Southwestern Railroad. Soon after, he became private secretary to the division superintendent of the Wisconsin Central Railroad. Thereafter, he engaged in the related coalbusiness, first with the Chicago Wilmington & Vermillion Coal Company, then in 1895 he helped form the Bell and Zoller CoalMining Company headquartered in Chicago. The main mine operated in central Illinois near Ziegler and became the largest bituminous mine, in tonnage, in the United States.

In 1927, at the age of sixty, Mr. Zoller decided to retire from the prosperous Company of which he had been Secretary. This was just before the Great Depression when many other coal companies went under. He continued to reside in the large building he had built on Hyde Park Boulevard facing the lakefront park to the east and located northeast of the University of Chicago. During this period of contemplation and philanthropy, he often strolled across the campus of the University observing the new hospital buildings being constructed.

As a bachelor, he deliberated how his fortune might be put to the best possible altruistic use. Upon his demise in June, 1933, Walter Zoller left a bequest of over three million dollars to the University of Chicago for the establishment of a unique dental clinic. Mr. Zoller was well aware of the needs of dentistry and the dental problems encountered by people in all walks of life, for he stated in his Will "... it has become quite generally recognized that a vast portion of the ills and ailments of people is traceable to infections and diseases of the teeth and gums and that very limited opportunity is given the poor people to receive proper dental treatment and diagnostic aid at the hands of experienced and competent dental surgeons and diagnosticians...".

Through Mr. Zoller's magnanimity, it was possible to build a clinic to study and treat the dental ills of patients who had some systemic disease and were unable to provide adequate dental treatment for themselves. To learn better methods of treating and preventing dental disease called for the establishment of research laboratories and educational opportunities in this great University's educational and research environment.

Thus, through his early frugality and final generosity, Mr. Zoller has contributed, monetarily, more than any single man to the advancement of Dentistry.