NDA Journal Spring 2022

Spring 2022 www.nvda.org 9 Featured Article James Callaway, an Artist with a Drill and a Brush By Daniel L. Orr II, D.D.S., M.S. (Anesthesiology), Ph.D., J.D. M.D., Editor, NDAJ Dr. James A. Callaway (1947– 2022) (Figure 1) was a wellknown dentist and Renaissance-Man for over 50 years in Las Vegas, NV. Callaway attended the University of Nevada Reno as an undergraduate then matriculated into the University of Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry where he earned a D.D.S. Summa Cum Laude. He then moved back to his hometown of Las Vegas to begin practice. He began his affiliation with UNLV sports medicine as the team dentist in 1977. He was also the team dentist for the Las Vegas AAA minor league professional baseball franchise from its inception in 1983 and for the National Finals Rodeo which moved to Las Vegas in 1985. “Doc” was a member of the Board of Directors of the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame and was inducted into the UNLV Sports Hall of Fame in 2008 as an essential contributor to, for instance, UNLV national championships in basketball, tennis, track and field, and golf. The Las Vegas Review Journal described Dr. Callaway as “An artist with both a drill and a brush.” Not only were his patients singularly known in the community, but he was well-known to dentists for the fact that he did all his own fixed prosthodontic lab work. Throughout his career he was in high demand as an esthetic dentist to entertainers from Las Vegas and around the world. Dr. Callaway’s national reputation though was not as a dentist, but as an artist who specialized in Western Americana (https://www.facebook. com/JimCallawayart/). Not only was he a team doctor, but was also authorized by the UNLV, the NFR, and others as a vetted gallery-qualified artist. Dr. Callaway was commissioned by UNLV for dozens of portraits through the years. (Figures 2–4) »

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