Paul’s father, Richard G. Fischl, D.D.S., received both his undergraduate and dental degrees from Northwestern University. During college, Dick served in the Navy’s V-12 program, a predecessor to today’s R.O.T.C. officer training program. He met his wife, Lila, during dental school while she was an undergraduate in the Northwestern speech correction program. Upon dental school graduation, he enlisted in the Army, where one could say our practice began in a sandbag bunker in Korea during the Korean War. Dick served as the dentist for an engineering battalion in an “office” made of sandbags.
Dr. Richard Fischl in his “office” made of sandbags, circa 1954
In 1954, after completing his service to the Army, where he earned the Bronze Star for meritorious service, Dick returned to Evanston and his wife and first child to set up private dental practice. He walked through the Carlson Building (same building as today), and he knocked on the door of every dentist to say hello. By dinner that evening, he had an agreement to purchase a dental practice from one of his Northwestern classmates, who had decided that Chicago was not the place he wanted to pursue his career.
Dick practiced on the seventh floor of the Carlson Building from 1954 until 1963. In 1963, Lyman-Sargent’s Pharmacy moved from the corner of the second floor down to the first floor. When the second floor space became available, it was taken over by three different dentists with separate offices: Dr. Dick Fischl, Dr. Jim Best (Best Endodontics), and Dr. Doug Meinig.
In 1968, Dick asked his wife, Lila, to help out at the office for “a few weeks.” She was the receptionist and office manager for the next 27 years. Dick served as President of the Chicago Dental Society in 1978-1979.
Pictured above: Dr. Dick Fischl, Lila Fischl, Dr. Marie Bradley Fischl, Dr. Paul Fischl
Paul joined Dick in practice in 1981, and Marie joined them both in 1985. When Doug Meinig retired in 1985, the Fischls purchased his practice and expanded into his space on the Church Street side of the corner. Many of Dr. Meinig’s patients remain in the practice today.
Dick and Lila retired together in 1995, just before the space that had belonged to Best Endodontics became available on the Orrington Street side of the corner. Paul and Marie expanded the office into the available space, giving our practice the office space it enjoys today.