"He labored to make this a leading school for training men to the highest ideals of professional culture, that through its alumni professional standards might be upheld and public service of the highest grade secured." Resolution of the Faculty, 1903.

1865
Initial discussions leading to the founding of the UM School of Dentistry.
Dr. Taft, in his manuscript about the founding of the School, put it this way: "The suggestion originated, as nearly as can now be ascertained, in conversations and consultations between Drs. John A. Watling, C. B. Porter, and George L. Field."

1872 (June 23^rd)
Representatives of the Michigan Dental Association proposed to the Regents the need for a school of dentistry in connection with the state university.
The proposal was tentatively approved, but referred for further discussion to the Committee for the Medical Department. In the same meeting, the Regents approved faculty for the Department of Homeopathy, including a specialist in Materia Medica (herbal remedies). The Homeopathy program later became a source of difficulties for Dr. Taft and his dental students.

1875
After three years in planning, the School opened in October of this year, with Dr. Taft as the founding Dean.
Dr. Taft was at the time the Dean of the Ohio College of Dental Surgery and Professor of Operative Dentistry. He relinquished the deanship to accept the position at the University of Michigan, but on the condition that the Ann Arbor position be no more than half time. His original plan was to help in getting the new school off the ground, but then to step back and allow others to carry on.

1877
Dr. Taft, after two years as the founding Dean of the new School, was inducted into the Michigan Dental Association.

1879
Resigned as Professor of Dental Surgery at the Ohio College of Dental Surgery.
What convinced him to stay at the University of Michigan was the unique opportunity to define a dental curriculum to meet the very highest educational standards, to truly lead the profession into the future, and to create future leaders of the dental profession. During his tenure as Dean of the School, he consistently lobbied for a longer and more complex dental education program, succeeding in 1901 in establishing the four-year model of dental education which later became the national standard.

1881
Received the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Michigan.

1891
The School of Dentistry moves into facilities previously occupied by the University Hospitals.
More pictures of the School's buildings are available.

Dean Taft had asked every year for almost fifteen years for expanded teaching facilities for the School. The original teaching space for the School was shared with the Homeopathy Department, and there were a number of tense interactions between the students of the two schools. At least one of the student interactions involved a cow in a second floor classroom which was waiting for the dental students as they began their day. Dr. Taft had his own strong feelings about the situation. Indeed, shortly after the dental program began, Dean Taft published an article in his journal calling for the resignation of the faculty of Homeopathy at the University (Dental Register 30 1876: 272-274).
University Administration was sympathetic to the need for additional space, and space which was devoted to dentistry alone, but funding was not available for building a new facility. At this time, it was standard practice to build hospitals of wood, to make it easier to raze them when they became overly ripe with infectious materials and vermin. When the University decided it was time to build a new hospital, the opportunity was provided to make that space available for the School of Dentistry. This location is now commemorated by a plaque on the south side of North University across from the League.

1900
Retired and passed the editorship of the Dental Register to Neville S. Hoff, the next Dean of the University of Michigan School of Dentistry.