DEVELOPMENT

Dr. Timothy Hanigan Explains His Johnston Professorship Pledge

Dr. Timothy Hanigan

"He was the master of the hard question. He knew what to ask in class to determine if you really understood what he was teaching," said Dr. Timothy Hanigan of Dr. Lysle Johnston.

Hanigan earned a master's degree in orthodontics in 1995 and has pledged $50,000 to the professorship that will bear Johnston's name. "It's because of him and what Lysle represents, namely excellence, and what he did for me while I was a student that I am making this gift to the University of Michigan School of Dentistry," he said.

Arriving in Ann Arbor in 1992, Hanigan said he "wanted to graduate from an orthodontics program that was one of the most prestigious in the country."

To do so would require plenty of hard work. What Hanigan remembers most about his three years at U-M was Johnston's statistics course.

Saying he struggled in math, Hanigan said "I spent a lot of time memorizing course material, thinking that would help in the statistics class. But Lysle had a way of quickly determining who really understood what he was teaching and who didn't."

Johnston did that with frequent questions in the classroom. "I dreaded it," Hanigan said. "Being called on in class to answer a question was always intimidating, especially if you didn't know an answer or couldn't explain it," he said.

Exams were equally challenging.

Hanigan said Johnston often told students they could bring in textbooks to help them with an exam. But it rarely worked. "He wrote his questions in such a way that whatever you brought in to help you, it didn't do any good if you didn't know the rationale or the reasoning behind the material."

Realizing his quandary, Hanigan asked Johnston for help.

"He spent one night a week helping me, away from family and friends, for about eight weeks until I understood the material and got it right," Hanigan said. "He did it because he wanted me, and everyone else, to not just pass his course, but to take what he was teaching us and apply it in our lives once we left the classroom. He wanted all of us to be critical thinkers."

Hanigan said what Johnston taught him has remained with him.

"He taught us to critically analyze statistics that were being used to support an argument or position," Hanigan said. "It was what I call 'pure drive' on his part to want to accurately answer a question regardless of where the answer might take you," he continued. "I want to see that approach to education and critical thinking continued by the person who becomes the Lysle Johnston professor."

Hanigan practices orthodontics in Garden City, Kansas.