Soon after marrying Ray Noorda, Tye Noorda accidently slipped and fell one day, damaging some of her front teeth. Her recovery from the event was long and painful, and for one year, she didn’t have enough money to have her teeth properly fixed. The event made a lasting impression on her. Many years later, when she and Ray had an opportunity to support a new dentistry building on the University of Utah campus that would train young dental students at a reasonable cost and, equally important, provide dental services to low income patients, the Noordas and their children stepped up and made a remarkably generous lead gift of $30 million. Ray Noorda BS’49, who led software giant Novell, died in 2006, and Tye passed away in April 2014, not long after the groundbreaking for the dental school. The kindness and vision of the two Utah philanthropists and their children were critical to the project’s success.
On April 8, an appreciative crowd gathered on a snowy afternoon to celebrate the opening of the new $36 million, 85,000-square-foot Ray and Tye Noorda Oral Health Sciences Building, located on lower Wakara Way in Research Park. Among those attending were U President David W. Pershing, Vivian Lee, senior vice president for health sciences, two of the Noorda’s four sons, Andy and John, and throngs of enthusiastic dental students and faculty. Also there with the well-wishers were Glen Hanson, professor of pharmacology and interim dean of the dental school, and James Bekker, dentistry professor and senior associate dean for clinical affairs.
The facility includes a clinic with 62 dental stations, providing space for students who are monitored by faculty dentists, to work on patients. Dental student services cost half the typical price and most insurance plans are accepted.
“Thanks to the great generosity of Ray and Tye Noorda and their children, our School of Dentistry now has the facilities both to provide an outstanding education for future dentists and to advance discovery in oral health science,” says Lee.
“With the best dental students in the country, we expect to become one of the nation’s top dental programs while serving the people of Utah and those who cannot afford dental care. We are honored to steward this mission.”
The dentistry school joins the professional schools of pharmacy, nursing, health, and medicine to complete the University’s offering of every aspect of a health sciences education. The school also will serve as a resource for Utah dentists by providing meeting space and assisting in their continuing education.
