James Adrian

Published November 6, 2014 This content is archived.

James Cletus Adrian, a retired professor of dentistry and an oral pathologist, died Nov. 2 under hospice care in Bristol Village, Clarence Center, after a lengthy illness. He was 80.

Born in Buffalo, Adrian received a bachelor’s degree from St. Bonaventure University, a DDS from the UB School of Dental Medicine and a master’s degree in oral pathology from Georgetown University.

He served in the Army for 22 years and was chairman of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and the U.S. Army Institute of Dental Research.

After retiring as a colonel in 1981, he joined the faculty at the Howard University School of Dentistry in Washington, D.C., where he worked from 1981 to 2004. He also founded and managed Diagnostic Pathology Services, an independent pathology service.

Returning to the Buffalo area in 2004, Adrian joined Immco Diagnostics in Amherst, where he was a pathologist in the histopathology department and a member of the Science Council.

He also served as professor of oral and maxillofacial pathology in the Department of Oral Diagnostic Science in the UB dental school.

He retired in 2012.

Adrian also was an emeritus diplomat of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, and past president of the American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology.