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Scroggs was killed in the tragic crash of a Globemaster C124, November 22, 1952, en route to Alaska. Besides his father, Dr. Lawrence G. Singleton, he leaves a wife, the former Winifred J. Dobbins of Boston, Massachusetts, and a sister, Mrs. A.H. Chenault of Covina, California.
Scroggs Singleton will be keenly missed by all who knew him for he practiced friendship as well as orthodontics. He had great charm, his impulses were generous. In his professional life he inspired affection. One can but ponder the inscrutable fate which removed him in his prime.
The son of Dr. Lawrence G. Singleton and Emily Singleton was born in Beaver, Pennsylvania, November 11, 1904, and attended school there. He took his pre-dental training at Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania, received his Dental degree at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and his Master's degree in orthodontics at the University of California at Berkeley where he was a protege of Dr. Herman Becks.
After practicing orthodontics for a year with his father in Santa Barbara, Dr. Singleton opened an office in Westwood Village, Los Angeles. Later he augmented the Westwood practice with one at Palm Springs, commuting between the two offices by plane. Always an aviation enthusiast, he owned a Piper and a Beachcraft Bonanza.
From boyhood Scroggs had a great liking for the military. He attended the Civilian Military Training Camp at Camp Meade, Baltimore, Maryland at the age of seventeen, and thenceforth annually until he qualified to join the National Guard. He was a member of the National Guard and a Reserve Officer for twenty years, serving in World War II from 1941 to 1946 during which time he advanced to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was called again to the service of his country in August, 1950. He then served on the staff of General Hudelson of the 40th Division at Camp Cooke as Chief Surgeon--the only dentist who has ever acted as Chief Surgeon in the United States Army. Later he was transferred to Fort Lewis, Washington, until November 1, 1951, at which time he was appointed Chief Dental Surgeon for the Alaskan Army with headquarters at Elmendorf Air Base, Anchorage, Alaska.
Between wars Dr. Singleton was president of the Southern California Component of the Angle Society (1947) and--together with Dr. George Chuck of Long Beach, California--had developed the Precision Edgewise Arch which is manufactured under the trade name of the "Henry Preformed Edgewise Arch." Thus, through the exigencies of life as he found it, Scroggs alternated between professional and military service. He had built up two practices and was preparing for a third. He was optimistic by nature and planned for the future with confidence when the dentists of Alaska urged him to take the Board, which he passed with the highest grade. It had been his intention to practice orthodontics in Anchorage upon his retirement from the army in the summer of 1953. He would have been the sole orthodontist in the Alaskan area.
On November 1, 1952--having taken a five-day leave, he had come to the States to gather up his equipment for shipment. On his return trip, the Globemaster, with fifty-two service men aboard, struck snow-covered Mount Gannet at full speed. Members of an Air Force party detailed to investigate the crash reported the resulting explosion "left no trace of anything."
His friends and confreres proudly honor the memory of Lieutenant-Colonel Scroggs Singleton, while in their heart they say, 'Hail and Farewell'.
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