by Kathy Foster
Otis Ikner, shown above with Washington County Historical Society President Dorothy Odom, is an active member of the Washington County community and was once a member of the U.S. Olympic Fencing Team.
Ikner stopped by the Washington County Historical Society Museum recently to deliver reframed copies of a U.S. News & World Report in which he was featured.
A number of other of items from his personal stash of memorabilia are also featured in the local museum.
Ikner was born in Walnut Hill, Florida (Escambia County). He was the 17th child in the family and had eight brothers, as well as eleven sisters. He worked as a cotton picker from and early age.
Twenty-two years old when he graduated high school (he had to repeat grades due to missing so many days of school picking cotton). After graduating high school, Ikner left the area and picked tomatoes in Okeechobee and then moved on to work for a construction company where he saved enough money to attend Buke’s Community College.
Ikner returned home to the farm in 1963 after completing college, but later moved to Atlanta, Georgia to work for a dentist – Dr. Johnny Savage. And, while as a child Ikner wanted to be a doctor, he was applied and was ccepted into Dental Hygienist School – from which he graduated in 1973. His class consisted of 86 females and he was the lone male.
U.S. News and World Report interviewed Ikner because statistics showed that between 1973 and 1978 he was the only male dental hygienist. He was declared a pioneer in the dental hygienist field.
In 2007 Ikner was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Excellence in Dentistry Organization for being the first black male dental hygienist. (That honor is also displayed in the local museum.)
While in Atlanta, Ikner participated in everything from water sking, scuba diving, hang gliding, learning to cook and fencing. He was even on the U.S. Olympic Fencing Team. (His uniform, equipment and patch are on display in the museum in Chipley.)
When Dr. Savage moved back to the Ebro area, Ikner followed and worked in that office for another five or six years, until a stoke caused him to retire from that position; however, he then went to work for the Washington County Council on Aging.
Stop by the Washington County Historical Society Museum in downtown Chipley and learn more about Ikner and others whose stories/memorabilia are on display there.