Bruce Kennedy was born in Boston, Mass., and was raised in Lachine PQ where he graduated from Lachine High School in 1965. He completed a degree in Electrical engineering at McGill University in 1970 and went directly into the McGill Dental School, graduating in 1974. The Kennedy family had often vacationed in beautiful BC where Dad Kennedy grew up, and so Bruce moved to Vancouver immediately upon graduation, where he has been on vacation ever since.
After associating for two years with Dr. Sandy Tambosso, Dr. Bruce, along with partner Dr. Terry Coward, opened the practice at Victoria Drive and 54th Avenue, in 1976. Also in that year, Dr. Bruce met and married Catherine Scholte, at St. Margaret’s church in Vancouver.
Bruce and Catherine were both raised in Christian homes, and have continued in the faith of their parents. They have been involved in local churches and Christian organizations over the years. These have included St. Margaret’s church, Burnaby Christian Fellowship, Olivet Baptist, and most recently, Calvary Worship Centre. Bruce and Catherine have served on the board of Directors of Regent College, Vancouver Christian School, the Christian Advocacy Society, and Missions Fest. They have also been able to assist in establishing and maintaining overseas dental clinics in Mission hospitals in Haiti, Calcutta, and Kenya, as well as working with the Shantymen in Esperanza, and the First Nations clinic on East Hastings.
Bruce and Cathy have four grown children, who all come over for dinner depending on what Mom is cooking: Nathan(1978, Dr. Nathan Kennedy, DDS married to Emily in 2002), Sarah ( 1983, a physiotherapist in New Westminster), Stephen (1984 working in Customer service) and Paul (1985 attending SFU).
In the years since graduating from dental school Dr. Bruce Kennedy has focused his continuing education on three major areas of change in dentistry. Beginning in the early 1980’s, European methods of doing orthodontics were new to Canada, and Dr. Kennedy was an early adoptee of “Functional Orthodontics” and the emphasis on expanding arches, balancing muscles, and opening airways to give large full face smiles and avoid headgears and bicuspid extractions. Also in the early 1980’s, titanium, root form implants, pioneered in Sweden, were modified in Canada by Dr. G. Niznick, and Dr. Kennedy was among the first to use the “Coregent” implants in Vancouver. He has continued to attend courses and upgrades in both Functional Orthodontics and implants and has completed well over 1000 cases in each field.
Cosmetics in dentistry has always been important, and at the Annual meeting of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry in 2000, Dr. Kennedy and staff recognized that the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dentistry (LVI) had taken a number of concepts from various fields, and combined them for a significant ‘leap’ in dentistry, broadly known as “Neuromuscular Dentistry”. Combining concepts from Functional orthodontics, TMD treatment, physiotherapy, and advanced cosmetic procedures LVI has developed an education program, which Dr. Kennedy feels is the third major change in dentistry since he graduated from dental school. He has now completed the LVI Full Mouth Reconstruction Program (one of only 400 dentists worldwide) and feels that the practice can offer full mouth treatment plans on par with the best in the world.
The most valuable aspect of the dental practice is the loyalty and training of the long-term staff that have attended many of the training programs over the past 25 years with Dr. Kennedy. Irene (1980), Marion and Vickie (1982) and Lisa (1993) provide much of the management, care and encouragement in the practice. The staff enjoys annual trips to the best dental conventions in North America, and the staff husbands help out on special projects at the office as well.
Dr. Kennedy continues to enjoy ‘Old-Timers’ hockey at 8-rinks where the “Bandits” play year round. He also enjoys golf when he can find his ball, and tries vainly to stay fit. He is a Canucks fan, and a Lions fan (especially since several players attend the same church at CWC).
