User talk:Cbreads

Peter R. Breads, founder and CEO of Great Lakes Orthodontics ,Military man and founder of several patents in the Medical field  May 20, 1937 – Jan. 14, 2013 Peter R. Breads, founder and former chief executive officer of Great Lakes Orthodontics Ltd.,. Born in Rochester, the seventh child of an industrial arts teacher, Mr. Breads, whose surname is pronounced “Breeds,” graduated from high school in Chatham, near Albany, New York. He later attended what is now Erie Community College and took business courses at Canisius College and the University of Buffalo. He enlisted in the Navy in 1956 and, after attaining the first-ever perfect score in the Navy’s manual dexterity test, he studied in the Navy’s prestigious dental technology school in Bethesda, Md. After leaving the Navy, he moved to Angola, New York where his widowed mother was living, and worked in animal research at the VA Medical Center in Buffalo and then as a technical assistant to orthodontists Dr. Carl F. Gugino and Dr. Dominic A. Colarusso. He opened a PRB Orthodontic Laboratory in Buffalo in 1965, making appliances and study models for local orthodontists.Carl Gugino gave him support to create Great Lakes Orthodontics in 1967 and it became one of the largest orthodontic laboratories in the nation. Now headquartered in the Town of Tonawanda, it became an employee-owned company after he retired in 1990. It has grown from 40 employees in the 90s on Hertel Avenue in Buffalo NY, eventually moving to 199 Firetower Drive in Tonawanda NY and quadrupled its size and workforce in 3 years. In 2000 Great Lakes moved to Cooper Avenue in Tonawanda, with now close to 200+ Employees, further expansion resulted in a 2017 5.6 Million dollar expansion, adding an additional 25.000 square feet to the warehouse and employee areas, adding another 40 employees to the payroll Considered one of the leading experts in his field, Mr. Breads invented and patented several orthodontic devices which are in use to this day and greatly enhanced the orthodontic field. Mr Breads lectured nationally and internationally on orthodontic technology. He also taught orthodontic technology at the ECC South Campus in Orchard Park and served as chairman of the college’s Dental Advisory Board. He was a past treasurer and committee chairman for the Dental Laboratory Association of New York, a past president of the Western New York Dental Lab Owners Association and past chairman of the Upstate New York Dental Lab Owners Association. Also active in business organizations, he was a former director and executive vice president of the Buffalo Jaycees, a past chairman of the Council of Small Business Enterprises and a 1986 delegate to the White House Conference on Small and Entrepreneurial Businesses. Appointed to a three-year term on the New York Small Business Advisory Board by Gov. Mario Cuomo, he was a member and Chief of the governor’s 1986 Economic Summit. An avid sailor and fisherman, Mr. Breads moved from Grand Island to Florida in 1992. Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease when he was 49, he later battled multiple myeloma. Peter Breads also was the first US patient to have a brain implanted electronic neuro-stimulator to alleviate the effects of Parkinsons. The Procedure and he were featured on 60 minutes. He found that the neuro-stimulator worked exceedingly well, and was awake throughout the whole procedure and able to respond to commands and move various body parts to assist with the placement of the device.

He passed away Jan 17th 2013, and since then the family and Employees of Great Lakes have founded and created the Peter R Breads memorial scholarship, in which 5 people randomly selected in the local High Schools and Colleges are given a US $2000.00 cash award scholarship to assist them in their Dental Schooling. Cbreads (talk) 04:43, 4 July 2017 (UTC)