When Daniel Palmerlee first opened his dental practice in Gilroy, business trickled in slowly. As an avid photographer, he’d sometimes bide his time at the office developing negatives in the X-ray dark room.
That was 42 years ago. He was 26 years old, new to Gilroy after he and his wife decided to settle down in the nation’s Garlic Capital – jokingly dubbed the “bad breath” capital of the world.
Today, the SoCal transplant celebrates a month into retirement after nearly four-and-a-half decades building and maintaining his small dental firm on Wren Avenue into an established practice. Since those early days, the 69-year-old doctor has hardly seen a spare moment to develop negatives at work.
“It took a few years, but business started to take off,” he said, seated in his dining room by the antique roll-top desk he bought more than four decades ago to furnish his practice.
Math and medicine fascinated Palmerlee from a young age. In a high school career course, it clicked: He would study dentistry.
“The medical field always interested me,” he said. “I was always drawn to math, chemistry, science, so it just made sense … I never considered another career. I was really fortunate to have such a goal-oriented education.”
The scientifically inclined young scholar graduated on a full-ride scholarship from the Ostrow School of Dentistry at University of Southern California at 24 years old – the same year he married his wife Leslie, a friend since middle school. They soon moved to the Bay Area to explore another part of the Golden State.
“We heard good things about this place,” Palmerlee said. “We wanted to see more of California since we’d grown up in Los Angeles and spent so many years there.”
After a couple years collecting on-the-job experience working with a dentist in Redwood City, then another in East Palo Alto, Palmerlee took an entrepreneurial turn, taking out a loan to found his own practice in Gilroy. He was young, learning through trial, error and examples from his brief time at the other practices. Photography entertained him, sustaining his patience during long hours between patients. His wife spent her days as an elementary school teacher.
“The dentists here were very nice to me, very welcoming,” he said. “I quickly got involved in some activities here, I started to network and meet more people.”
Community theater became a hobby, partly because the art caught his interest and part because it connected him with the Gilroy community. Long hours rehearsing helped him forge new friendships and tapped into the creative side of his mathematical mind.
Theater and other community groups eventually connected him with the city’s civic leaders, which sparked a new passion he hadn’t previously considered pursuing.
“I became very interested in participating in public affairs,” he said. “It was fascinating to me because that’s how a city is run … I really enjoyed being a part of that.”
The budding civic leader followed two four-year terms as planning commissioner, from 1985 to ‘89, with a run for elected office. Voters ushered him in to City Council, where he served another four-year term.
Throughout it all, he built a healthy roster of dentistry clientele and a respected name in the industry. Advances like bonding restorative material to bone, cosmetic dentistry, implants and composite fillings gave him reason to continually learn.
“Education has always been important to him. He constantly stays on top of the latest advances to make sure he’s delivering the best for his patients,” said Paula McDermott, a dental hygienist who spent 27 years – since she was 19 years old – working for Palmerlee. “People love him, they come back to him – some with second-generation clients.”
The third generation will experience similar care, but under someone else’s watch. Palmerlee sold his practice recently to someone he’s proud to name his successor: Jernell Escobar will continue Palmerlee’s nearly half-century legacy, the retiree said.
“I really wanted to find somebody who would feel comfortable with patients who had been with me for 30 years or more,” he said. “I wanted somebody with a good personality, someone philosophically like me, someone who went to a good dental school.”
Escobar fit the bill. The University of the Pacific alum holds a wealth of experience, not just in the field of dentistry but as a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.
“I think because he’s confident that things will continue to be run well … he has time to enjoy himself,” said McDermott, who considers her first boss a friend and mentor.
Weeks into this new chapter in life, Palmerlee simply enjoys sleeping in. The quaint single-story Victorian he and his wife call home gives him respite from the hectic world of professional life. A colorful kitchen, with its butcher-block counter, gives him space to practice his artisan bread-making. A tidy, and by day natural-light-flooded front room, offers a cozy space for him and his wife to watch TV with their dog, Sandy.
Maybe, he muses, he’ll travel eventually. For now he plans to soak up the freedom, enjoy the company of his wife, two children, their children and friends. Painting, reading, keeping up their much-admired cottage will all happily occupy his days for the time being, he said.
He’ll also start taking pictures again, now that there’s plenty of time to develop them.
