Penn Dental professor Jerome Sklaroff, 96, died in his home Monday

Jerome Sklaroff, a longtime Penn Dental professor, died in his home on March 18 of a blood disorder, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. 

Sklaroff, 96, was a lifelong resident of Philadelphia and long-term member of the Penn community. Sklaroff enrolled at Penn in 1939, and in 1952, he became the youngest orthodontic faculty member at Penn — while also running his own orthodontic practice in Center City, the Inquirer reported. 

Skarloff lectured undergraduate students, graduate students, and dental professionals at Penn for over 67 years, continuing to teach three seminars a week at 92, the American Board of Orthodontics reported.

Salvatore DeRicco, who received an orthodontics certificate from Penn Dental in 1991, remembers Skarloff fondly. “Never without an amusing story or a hilarious joke, Dr. Sklaroff’s humor was second only to his extraordinary dedication to Penn Orthodontics,” DeRicco wrote in an online statement reported by the Inquirer. “And his pragmatic orthodontic lessons have been invaluable to my practice.”

“His command of orthodontics and his unrelenting status as a lifelong student of the specialty until his last days made him an orthodontic luminary in Penn’s department of orthodontics for over 67 years,” clinical professor of orthodontics Peter Greco told the Inquirer. “We have lost a giant of a man.”

Sklaroff served in World War II as a dentist and dental surgeon. He was awarded the American Campaign Medal and Army Occupation Medal, the Inquirer reported. 

Outside of orthodontics, Sklaroff enjoyed art, music, and ballet, and cycled every Sunday with a group known as the Alte Yakers.