Herb Gabriel’s family came to North County in 1911.  Eight years later he was born here in Oceanside, the youngest of six children.  The son of a road master for the Santa Fe Railroad, Herb graduated from Oceanside-Carlsbad Union High School as the senior class president in 1937.  After attending Oceanside-Carlsbad Junior College for one year, he transferred to UC Berkeley before moving on to the University of California, San Francisco to study dentistry.  In 1943, Herb graduated with a B.S., D.D.S. and Curriculum II certificate in Orthodontics.  That same year, he entered the U.S. Army Air Force, Dental Corps. He began his own private practice in Oceanside in 1949, continuing until his retirement in 1987.  

A Life Member of the American Dental Association, Herb was widely known and recognized in both the Oceanside community and within the dental field.  He became a Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics, honored as a Life Fellow of the Pierre Fouchard Society, and Fellow of the American College of Dentists.   Herb is a member of the College of Herb Gabriel, Class of 1937Diplomates, American Board of Orthodontics, and is also a member of the Charles H. Tweed Orthodontic Foundation.  The same commitment he showed to the field of dentistry also was evident in his commitment to education.  From 1956 to 1971, he served as a member of the Oceanside Union School District Board of Trustees.  As a longtime member of the Kiwanis, he held the post of president of the group in 1957.  Herb was a long time president of the All Saints’ Cemetery Association, San Luis Rey, and a member of the Oceanside Public Library Foundation Board of Trustees.   A lifelong member of the Episcopal Church, he and his wife Betty proudly raised three sons.  Herb passed away on December 3, 2015.

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