Haiku poet Dr. Lee Gurga retires from dentistry

[October 25, 2018]   

Dr. Lee Gurga of Apple Dental Center in Lincoln is retiring this year after 35 years of practice. He was honored with a retirement party on Wednesday, October 24, 2018 at Midwest Dental located at 207 South McLean in Lincoln.

Dr. Gurga is retiring with class! He is donating his equipment to Love Repeated, a non-profit organization in Elkhart. Love Repeated plans to donate Dr. Gurga's equipment to hospitals located in Tanzania, in East Africa.

The hospitals which are located in the cities of Rulenge and Biharamulo have dental clinics and dentists, but NO equipment. “I am donating my whole office, dental chairs, lab equipment, dentist supplies, metal cabinets, and stools,” said Gurga, as he wrapped plastic shrink around a cabinet to be sent.

Nancy Davis, coordinator of Love Repeated, said the shipment to Tanzania will include a John Deere 40/20 tractor and plow. She said, “Dr. Gurga's dental equipment in will be sent in a 40-foot container.” She described the size of it to be about as large as a double cargo on a freight train. “The shipment will take two months on the ocean to East Africa and another two months to get to Tanzania, which is over a thousand mile trek.

“It costs the charity about $20,000 to send one container to East Africa,” said Nancy Davis.

Also being donated from a Medical Supply in Africa by Arthur Asao is an ultra sound machine.

This all came about when two of Dr. Gurga's patients told Nancy Davis of his retirement and that he might want to share and donate to Love Repeated, the grassroots organization co-founded by Fr. Simon Tabu, a Catholic Priest from Tanzania, and Nancy Davis, who has nursed 40 years. Their mission is to support the educational/training development, health, and relief efforts in the Rulenge-Ngara Diocese.

A board of seven committee members helps to provide relief activities for orphans, AIDS victims and refugees.

Besides his kind benevolence, Dr. Gurga has been living in Lincoln 40 years working at his passion, General Dentistry, as a DDS. Let's go back to where his career began.

Lee Gurga and his wife Jan grew up in the city of Chicago. In 1979 Lee graduated from the University of Illinois College Dentistry. At the time, the only town over population 3,000 that needed a dentist was Lincoln. When they moved here, Lee had his dental license and little else. State Bank of Lincoln took a chance at giving him a loan to set up his practice. Then finding a place was his next big step.

After being in Lincoln several years, two dentists who were practicing were getting ready to retire, Dr. Dean and Dr. Bob Goebel. Lee made arrangements to buy their building and take over on 514 Pekin Street.

In their time here, Lee and Jan Gurga raised their family, Ben, A.J., and Alex. Three sons whom later went to West Broadwell School, LCHS, and also to the Illinois Math and Science Academy. The boys are now out-of-state, Ben in Baltimore, A.J. in Colorado, and Alex in southern California.

When Dr. Gurga decided to retire, he felt a responsibility not to abandon his patients. “I had two problems resolved by the merge of Midwest Dental; they took my records of my patients and hired my staff,” said Gurga. This gave his staff continued employment and his patients further quality care.

Outside of dentistry, Lee Gurga has a bio reputation of writing Haiku poetry. Internationally he has traveled to Japan and judged Haiku contests. He has given talks and workshops on English-language haiku poetry in the United States, in Europe, and in Japan. His books of haiku, In & Out of Fog and Fresh Scent were awarded first prize by the Haiku Society of America Book Awards.

His 'Haiku: A Poet's Guide' was recognized by the HAS as “the book of criticism” for 2004. His anthology, Haiku 21, co-edited with Scott Metz, was honored as Best Anthology of the Haiku Society of America and given the Haiku Foundation's “Touchstone Distinguished Book Award.”

Dr. Gurga is currently editor of Modern Haiku Press. He has been a past president of the Haiku Society of America and former editor of the journal Modern Haiku. His awards include three first prizes in International Haiku contests, and Illinois Arts Council Poetry Fellowship, the Japanese America Society of Chicago's Cultural Achievement Award, and the American Red Cross Healthcare Heroes Award.

What will Lee Gurga now do with his retirement? He will be preserving the endangered Illinois Chorus Frogs of the Hylidae family. They are living on a piece of property in the conservation program, located in Mason County, that Dr. Gurga has purchased.

There is a pond located on the land for the frogs to live. Gurga will maintain it as a suitable habitat by removing predators such as catfish and bullfrogs. The Illinois Chorus Frogs come to breed during January and February. They eat larva hatched on the sandy beach of the pond and spend the rest of the year living under the ground.

The Illinois Chorus Frog is small, 1.4 to 1.75 inches long and about 5 grams - the size of a thumbnail. Its body is stout and toad-like with robust forearms. Its skin is not smooth but granular and it has dark brown or black lines on its back with a white belly. It has a character mask-like stripe from snout to shoulder. The vocal pouch of the male ICF darkens during the breeding season. Their breeding call is a series of high, rapid birdlike whistles that can be heard 1.3 miles away.

Now Dr. Gurga has tranquility and peace protecting the Illinois Chorus Frogs from dangers. The science in preservation should be a relaxing yet rejuvenating hobby for him to have. He said Dentistry is the second most stressful occupations outside of police work because there are so many interruptions.

old pond...
a frog leaps in
water's sound

Haiku by William J. Higginson
From Lee Gurga's book, A Poets Guide

[Catherine Carkulis]

To donate to this non-profit charity, Love Repeated, please contact Nancy Davis at [e-mail]. Or contact www.loverepeated.org. You can also find them on Facebook. Nancy said her mission work here is her passion!