I AM WILSHIRE - MIKE PLUNK

On retainers

Mike Plunk has the ideal personality for a pediatric dentist and orthodontist.

Besides his engaging but sometimes quirky sense of humor (he teased his wife, Carol, about naming their son “Kerr Plunk”), he has entertained his young patients in the past by riding his unicycle. He continues to juggle bowling pins for them and claims to be “an accomplished kazoo player.”

Given these talents, it’s not surprising to learn that he was a cheerleader at Bryan Adams High School for two years, then went on to be a yell leader at Baylor University for three years, and toward the end of his college days was an instructor for the National Cheerleaders Association.

When Mike was head yell leader in his senior year, he at first had difficulty filling the card section. “I decided to start a group of freshman men called the Baylor Line,” he said. This solved the problem, and the group now includes women.

He grew up in Dallas and had a newspaper route for the Dallas Times Herald as a youngster. In the 10^th grade, he worked behind the soda fountain at a pharmacy.

In Mike’s senior year of high school, his father had a heart attack, and Mike thought it would be financially impossible to go to Baylor. “One of my aunts helped me get a scholarship to Texas A&M University,” he said, but eventually he was able to enroll at Baylor.

At Baylor, he worked in the cafeteria and was a biology lab assistant. He also was one of 13 charter members of the Baylor Student Foundation, which raises money for scholarships.

“I was always interested in science, and I majored in biology,” he said. He first thought about a career in medicine, but “then I had an internal feeling that it wasn’t the right direction.”

A Baylor counselor asked if he’d thought about dentistry.

“He suggested talking to a dentist, so I talked to my own dentist, who had also been my Sunday School teacher,” Mike said. Success on the dental aptitude test confirmed that he was on the right path.

After graduating from Baylor in 1971, Mike began dental school at Baylor College of Dentistry. Upon graduation, he completed a pediatric dentistry program. After practicing from 1977 to 1983, he began an orthodontics program, which he completed in 1985.

In 1977, the Plunks took a brief detour to set up a dental practice with a friend in a Denver suburb. That lasted for about four months. “We wanted to be at home,” he said.

He currently works with the Western Regional Examining Board to help dentists obtain licenses in their states, including developing and administering examinations for candidates. He formerly served on the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners, including a term as president.

Mike was ordained as a deacon at Wilshire and taught youth and sixth-grade Sunday School classes for many years. He has served on the Committee on Committees and the Chil-dren’s Education and Finance committees, among others. He’s now interviewing new members and helping them find places of service.

In the 1980s, he was one of six dentists who participated in Wilshire’s dental mission trip to Dominica after a devastating hurricane. “We worked for a week with John Ross, a dental missionary, to help him rebuild,” he explained.

He met his wife in high school, but they didn’t begin dating until the end of high school. When they both ended up at Baylor, they began a more serious relationship. They were married in 1972 and have two adult children: Jeff, an actor (and juggler) in Dallas, and Sarah, who now lives in New York City.

Mike grew up at Lakeside Baptist Church, and his wife grew up at Gaston Avenue Baptist Church, so when they came back to Dallas and wanted to join their “own church,” Kirk and Lynn Newsom, friends from Baylor, encouraged them to try Wilshire. They joined in early 1973.

“I have loved the good changes that Wilshire has gone through from what we grew up with as traditional Southern Baptists,” he said. “Wilshire challenges us, honors the priesthood of believers, and is inclusive of all people.

“I miss the spirit of Bruce McIver but appreciate the way George has carried on.”