Malcolm A. Lynch, a former professor of oral medicine and an interim dean of Penn’s School of Dental Medicine, died on June 4 of natural causes. He was 88.

Dr. Lynch received an undergraduate degree from the University of Chattanooga and a DDS degree from the University of Tennessee. Afterward, he served as a dental officer in the U.S. Navy and earned an MD at the University of Washington in St. Louis in 1963. After an internship in internal medicine at Grady Hospital in Atlanta, he moved to Philadelphia to be a fellow in oral medicine at Pennsylvania General Hospital in 1964.

A year later, Dr. Lynch joined the faculty of Penn Dental as an instructor in the department of oral medicine, eventually becoming an assistant professor there in 1968 and then a full professor in 1975. Dr. Lynch was heavily involved with the faculty at Penn Dental, serving as Assistant Dean for Hospital and Extramural Affairs in the early 1970s and representing his school on several Faculty Senate committees over the decades. His teaching was renowned; Dr. Lynch received both a Lindback Teaching Award and Penn Dental’s Student Council Award for Excellence in Teaching. From 1988 to 1989, Dr. Lynch was the interim dean of Penn Dental (Almanac November 17, 1987), succeeding Jan Lindhe. 

Dr. Lynch’s expertise was not confined to dental medicine. In 1965, he joined Penn’s Student Health Service as an attending physician. He rose through the ranks there, eventually serving as its acting director from 1983 to 1985 (Almanac October 25, 1983). Dr. Lynch was also on the attending staff of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), and from 1974 to 1977, he served as the chair of its department of dental medicine. In the 1980s, he spoke at Penn on several panels about AIDS and sat on a committee on campus planning under then-President Sheldon Hackney. 

Dr. Lynch was well-regarded for his research and lectures, most of which dealt with mouth disease and oral manifestations of systemic disease. He wrote several influential book chapters and edited evergreen textbook Burket’s Oral Medicine for several years; the eighth edition (1984) of the book, produced under Dr. Lynch’s stewardship, was translated into Spanish, Italian, and Chinese. 

Dr. Lynch is survived by his partner, John McKeon, and many cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends. As per his wishes, no memorial services will be held.

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