The last thing Louis Dubin wanted was for anyone to be afraid of him.
So Dubin, a pediatric dentist, worked hard at keeping the fear out of the kids who were his patients.
Dubin, who died Sept. 26 at 92, “had a great love for children, and he had a way with them,” said his daughter Myndel Pozner of Denver, who worked in her dad’s office when she was young.
“He was very gentle and explained to them that he was going to make things work better,” Pozner said.
It wasn’t uncommon for kids to bring him gifts – often drawings they had made in school.
Over the several decades he practiced here, he treated three generations of several families, Pozner said.
Dubin worked until he was 89, said his brother, Frank Dubin, a medical doctor.
One of the few things Louis Dubin ever ranted about was the danger of eating too much sugar, recalled his brother.
“It’s bad for your teeth,” he told everyone.
But the dentist had a sweet tooth himself and liked everything sweet, especially chocolate, said Myndel Pozner.
“The rest of us would be talking about not eating this and not eating that, and he would say, ‘What’s the big deal? I just eat what I like,”‘ she said.
His cooking was focused on special breakfasts each Sunday, at which he tried out a new recipe each week.
He stayed healthy all his life, Myndel Pozner said, doing pool exercises, walking and even taking up tai chi when he was 80.
Louis Israel Dubin was born June 16, 1914, in Philadelphia.
He was a young teenager when the family came west because his father, Israel Dubin, had asthma, said Frank Dubin.
The family lived in New Mexico before coming to Denver in 1928.
Louis Dubin’s daughter Betty Jo Stempel of Columbus, Ohio, said her father was fluent in Spanish.
Israel Dubin opened a dry-goods store, Dubin’s Bargain Store, at 21st and Larimer streets.
Louis Dubin graduated from North High School and earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Colorado in Boulder and his dental degree at Creighton University in Omaha.
He set up his dental practice after serving in the Army. His first office was in downtown Denver, and Dubin had several east Denver locations over the years.
He married Marcella Sunshine, whom he met on a blind date, July 18, 1940. She died 10 years ago.
In addition to his brother and daughters, he is survived by daughter Debra Wingfield, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com or 303-954-1223.
