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Portrait of a Professional
Pat And Ron Rogowski
PAR Laboratory
P
Laguna Hills, California
By Robert P. Scholz, DDS
AT AND RON ROGOWSKI have been in the orthodontic lab business since
1958 and opened PAR Orthodontic Lab in 1984 in Laguna Hills, CA. It
is a family-owned business that has earned a great deal of respect from
members of our specialty. They have been one of the most consistent small
company vendors at our Annual Sessions.
ROBERT P. SCHOLZ, DDS (Discovery Bay, CA) is the Editor of Techno
Bytes, the technology section of the American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial
Orthopedics. He has conducted several interview articles for Techno Bytes. Bob’s
friendship with Pat and Ron spans several decades. He suggested that we honor their
consistent support for the PCSO with a Bulletin “Portrait,” which follows. —Ed.
Bob Scholz: Let’s
start with your early
childhood. Where were
you born? Tell us about
your family background
and early education.
Bob: Tell us
about where and
when you met
and your early
dating days
which led to
marriage.
Pat and Ron: We were
both born in La Porte County,
Pat and Ron: We
Indiana—Ron in a very small
attended the same
village of Pinhook, Indiana,
grade school and high
and Pat in the city of La Porte.
school in Westville.
Ron then grew up in the town
We had only one date
of Westville, Indiana (which
during high school;
became the headquarters for T-P
however, during the
Laboratories, Inc.). Pat’s maiden
time Ron spent in the
name was Wozniak and she grew
Army he corresponded
up on Wozniak Road in La Porte
Ron and Pat Rogowski of PAR are a familiar
with
Pat and arranged
County. The road was named
sight at PCSO’s Annual Meetings.
for a date after he was
after her grandfather (who had
out of the service.
a large farm located there). Both
After that we began dating while Pat was a senior
our fathers were in supervision at the Allis Chalmers
in high school. She was planning to become a
Manufacturing Plant (manufactured farm machinery)
teacher and attended Ball State Teachers College
in the city of La Porte, and spent all of their working
in Muncie, Indiana, but changed her plans during
lives there. Our mothers both were homemakers and
the first year in college and took business courses
Ron’s mother raised eight children and Pat’s raised
to prepare her for a career in business. We decided
three children. Most of our family still remains in
to get married the following year.
La Porte County, Indiana.
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PCSO BULLETIN • SPRING
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Portrait of a Professional
Ron’s first job was at the same Allis Chalmers plant
in La Porte, after he completed two years of Army
service during the Korean War, during which he was
stationed in Germany near the beautiful town
of Heidelberg.
Bob: So when and where did you
enter the orthodontic laboratory
business?
Pat and Ron: After Pat’s year at Ball State,
there was a job opening at T-P Laboratory, and she
became a secretary there. There was an opening for
a laboratory technician at the time so Ron applied
We worked at T-P for 10 years, and during that time
Dr. Kesling trained Ron in all facets of fabricating
set-ups and tooth positioners. Dr. Harold Kesling
was the inventor of the tooth positioner during
the 1950s and we became employed there in 1958.
When Kesling and Rocke opened their Orthodontic
Center in Westville, they began having seminars on
both the tooth positioner and the Begg Light Wire
Technique, and Ron was involved in demonstrating
the art of constructing set-ups to the orthodontists
attending. Pat worked in the office as a billing clerk
and secretary at T-P.
During those first years, we attended Purdue
University Extension, located across from the
Orthodontic Center and took courses in business
management.
We spent almost all of our “golden hour” weekends
on the boat ...
for the position and was hired to be trained to make
tooth positioners for Drs. Kesling and Rocke.
We began building a house on Wozniak Road—Pat’s
father gave us over an acre of land and we purchased
a pre-cut home. All of our family members were
involved in the building of the house. Pat’s wage at
T-P Lab at the time was $1.35 per hour and Ron’s
$1.65 per hour. Pat remembers helping Ron nail
shingles on the rooftop and putting tar on basement
blocks, among other laborious tasks after working at
the lab during the week. This was six months before
our wedding on September 26, 1959. The house was
almost completed by the wedding, which took place
at St. Mary’s Church in Otis, Indiana.
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2010 • PCSO BULLETIN
In 1968, Ron took a job with Dental Corporation
of America in Rockville, Maryland. We sold
our Indiana home, moved into an apartment in
Rockville, and eventually purchased a 29½-foot
wooden Chris Craft, which we used on the South
River off the Chesapeake Bay. We named the boat
“Gold n’Ours”—the boat was painted gold and white,
and there was a lot of “gold” spent to purchase it.
We spent almost all of our “golden hour” weekends
on the boat and feel that those were some of the
most enjoyable times in our lives.
Ron opened a Tooth Positioner department at
DCA and Pat worked as secretary to Martin “Bud”
Schulman, who was the president of the company.
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Portrait of a Professional
It was there that Ron began attending orthodontic
component meetings with the management at DCA
as exhibitors and he became acquainted with many
East Coast orthodontists. To this day, PAR is doing
work for some of the doctors that Ron met while
working at DCA.
During the time Pat worked for Bud, Bud became
involved in financial planning for orthodontists
and Pat typed the first manuscript for the book Bud
wrote on this topic. He later became heavily involved
with seminars for orthodontists on financial
planning. One weekend, Pat had promised Bud that
she would complete typing some of the chapters of
the book by Monday. However, while in the galley on
their boat, she burned her fingers on the stovetop,
Yet because of Pat’s work ethic and the fact that
she had promised Bud that she would finish those
Bob: When and where did your first
lab open?
Pat and Ron: We had not been blessed with
children; however, this made it very easy for
us to move to Costa Mesa, California, where
we managed PROfessional Positioners for 13
years. In 1984—Ron was 48 and Pat was 44—we
decided to open our own business. That is when
PAR Orthodontic Laboratory was born. We were
very fortunate to have made contacts with many
orthodontists on the West Coast, as we had been
exhibitors at PCSO meetings for the 13 years we
managed PROfessional Positioners. Incidentally,
PRO closed the California branch in 1986, two
years after we had opened our own PAR laboratory.
Bob: What has changed over the years
at PAR laboratory?
Pat remembers helping Ron nail shingles on
the rooftop ...
chapters, she dipped her fingers in ice water every
few minutes in order to type the manuscript on a
portable typewriter she had used while in college.
We both believe in loyalty to an employer and giving
100% to the job at hand.
While working at DCA, we got the idea of opening
our own laboratory. We looked at locations in
Annapolis and surrounding areas, as we were hoping
to keep our boat and live in the Chesapeake Bay area.
Then we wrote our old friends and former bosses
who had a laboratory in Wisconsin (PROfessional
Positioners). Gerry Huge and Dick Allesee were
interested in expanding their operations and
hired us to open a branch laboratory in Southern
California. It was too expensive to transport our boat
to Southern California, so we were forced to leave
it behind.
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Pat and Ron: Many of the technicians who had
been with us at PRO eventually joined us at PAR—
some before the closure of PRO in 1986 and others
after. Therefore, we presently have employees who
have worked with us for a total of 37 years. PAR
has hundreds of years of experience at our small
laboratory in Laguna Hills, CA. Ron trained all
those in the Positioner department himself over
the years, and most of the technicians making
retainers and functional appliances were from
PROfessional Positioners and we in turn trained
any newer employees at PAR. The technicians
are kept up-to-date on the various designs of
orthodontic appliances through various methods,
including reading the articles available in the JCO
and PCSO Bulletin.
At one time PAR employed as many as 23
employees; however, because of the downturn
in the economy in the past several years and the
competition of Invisalign in the laboratory field,
we now have 16 employees.
Invisalign has affected the custom-orthodontic
laboratory business. Some of PAR’s accounts use
that method of treatment for half of their patients;
therefore, the amount of business we receive from
those accounts has decreased by 50%. The tooth
PCSO BULLETIN • SPRING
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Portrait of a Professional
positioner has become an adjunct to some of our
accounts using Invisalign as a case can be finetuned
using a positioner if some of the changes can’t be
made with the trays used in that treatment plan.
PAR has made invisible retainers for many years and
incorporates some tooth movement when requested
by resetting the teeth and forming the tray over
the corrected model—usually in a three-stage set
of trays. This was being done before the arrival of
Invisalign.
We have made Frankel appliances in the past;
however, the technician who was trained in this
aspect of lab work left us a few years ago to open
his own lab, and
due to the lack of
interest in this
appliance in the
past few years, we
are no longer
offering this
appliance.
Bob: What advice would you offer an
office that uses an outside lab?
Pat and Ron: The only advice we would have
for orthodontists using outside laboratories is to
make certain they or their staff check the models
that are sent to the lab for accuracy before mailing
them. This is of the utmost importance when
fabricating an orthodontic appliance—accuracy of
the impressions.
Pat and Ron: We have attended all 38 PCSO
annual meetings since 1971 as exhibitors,
the first 13 years representing PROfessional
Positioners and the remainder as owners of
PAR. We also attend the majority of the Rocky
Mountain Society meetings, and have missed
only a few of the AAO annual meetings. Most
of PAR’s clients are located on the West Coast;
however, we do service many orthodontists in
other parts of the U.S., plus Japan, Mexico and
Canada.
50th wedding anniversary celebration,
September 26, 1959.
2010 • PCSO BULLETIN
Pat and Ron: The orthodontic meetings are the
most valuable tool we have to build and maintain
business by the contacts we make at the meetings
and being able to communicate with the doctors
we serve at these meetings. We do place ads in
the Bulletin (unfortunately, due to our financial
situation at the present time due to downturn in
business, we have not been able to advertise for the
past year. We hope to begin to do so in 2010.)
Bob: Is it true that you have
exhibited at the last 38
consecutive PCSO meetings?
Pat and Ron on theiir
wedding day,
September 26, 1959.
SPRING
Bob: What have you done to market
PAR laboratory?
Bob: I know several husband and
wife teams in which both are
orthodontists, some who practice
together and some who don’t. What
kind of advice can you offer our
readers when both actually work
together on a daily basis?
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Portrait of a Professional
Pat and Ron: We are quick to answer, “Don’t take
your work home with you! Never talk about problems
at work once you’re home for the evening or
weekend. Take care of business at the office, and
enjoy your lives at home without referring to what
happened at work that day.” Also, have empathy
for your spouse and eliminate selfishness from
your lives.
Bob: Tell us about your 50 th
wedding anniversary
celebration.
Pat and Ron: We are telling
you our story in 2009, which
commemorates our 50th
wedding anniversary, since we
were married in 1959. We have
been fortunate to have been on
several cruises that took us to
Europe, the Baltic countries,
Australia/New Zealand, the
Caribbean, Alaska and other
parts of the world over the past
15 years. However, rather than
spending our 50th anniversary
on a cruise with strangers, we
decided we would like to have a
reunion of family and friends
in Indiana and renew our vows
at the same Catholic Church we
were married in on September
26, 1959.
attend. All of the former bridesmaids were there and
one of the groomsmen. We had not seen some of
our relatives that attended for as many as 40 years,
so the event will be remembered as one of the
highlights of our lives.
As a 50th anniversary gift to each other, we decided
to adopt a puppy, as we had been without one for
six years. Maddie is our new labradoodle, and she
has become an important part of our household.
Maddie also gives us an incentive to keep up our
exercise program by regularly walking her.
Bob: Are you and
Pat planning an
exit/retirement
plan for sometime
in the future? What
will happen at the
PAR lab?
The secrett of a successful live-work marriage:
“Don’t take your work home with you!”
St. Mary’s Church in Otis, Indiana, serves a small
Polish community near Westville and La Porte.
The church was built in 1879 and has retained its
original appearance. It is pictured here in 1959 at
our wedding and again in 2009 at the 50th wedding
anniversary celebration. Pat organized the affair
from our home in Mission Viejo with the assistance
of nieces and nephews who reside in La Porte,
Indiana. The celebration included a reception for
110 friends and family, some of who traveled from
the states of Washington, Florida and Arizona to
Pat and Ron: We both
feel privileged to have
been able to serve the
orthodontic community
over the past 51 years, and
feel we could not have
chosen a better career in
life. Our homes were in La
Porte, Indiana; Rockville,
Maryland; Costa Mesa,
Irvine and finally Mission
Viejo, California, where we
have resided in the same
home for the past 31 years.
We plan to retire to our home there, as we feel the
climate is perfect and our small one-story home
will accommodate us well as we grow older. We
have recently been spending fewer hours at the
laboratory as we plan for eventual retirement. We
expect our “family” of technicians, who have been
with us for so many years, to carry on our tradition
of providing orthodontists with the same personal
service and quality appliances that we have been
proud to offer.

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