Robert Mcgraw Sr

In the months leading up to the end of WWII, 16 year old Bobby McGraw dragged his mother down to the enlistment office to do something she was loathe to do: lie about his age so he could join up.

And yet, she did it…

Even then he was a pretty persuasive fellow… Little Bobby was the youngest boy in a family of 11 children growing up in Miami, Fl in the Depression. He started working at 10, making a dollar a day running a drill press. He grew flowers, made bouquets and flower corsages and sold them at the nightclubs in Miami Beach. He made them for his friends to sell, and he profited by two cents on every bouquet and corsage.

Bypassing the usual high-school routine, Bob wrote later how he spent his time chasing girls, riding motorcycles and flying, soloing as a private pilot at 12, and ultimately earning a multi-engine rating.

In 1945, Bobby flew transport aircraft to Africa for the Air Transport Command. After the war, Bob McGraw took an Associates Degree at Graceland College in Lamoni, Ia, and on a trip to Independence, Mo, met, and was smitten with Cicely Anne DeLapp, whom he married in 1949.

Bob pursued his Bachelors degree at Washington University (chasing after Cicely), finishing it at Kansas City University, where he was subsequently admitted to the Kansas City University Dental School.

Brass, guile and hard work took him a long way.

Bob McGraw pursued Dentistry with the same passion that he’d thrown at his other interests, graduating with a DDS in 1955. He returned to the military by way of the Air Force, and while serving in the dental branch of the USAF, he finagled a jet-type rating, logging several thousand hours of jet flight time before leaving the Air Force.

Fresh out of the military in 1959, Robert McGraw opened an Independence, Mo dental practice on Truman Road. In 1966, he joined in the formation of the Independence Dental Center, Inc.

Along with his partners, Robert pioneered the field of corporate dental practice and lectured both nationally and internationally on the benefits of corporate structure in dental practices.

Robert P. McGraw, DDS, practiced dentistry in Independence, MO from 1959 to 1992, and in Cameron, Missouri from 2000 to 2010. His career providing outstanding dental care to all who needed it spanned more than 50 years. He served on multiple dental missions to Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.

Still, despite the impressive litany of his accomplishments, the dates, times and degrees do little to convey a real sense of Bob McGraw.

Smart, hard-working, devoted to family, friends, God and Country – all true, certainly, but Bob displayed a humanity that’s difficult to describe adequately. He loved his family unconditionally and he forgave them any transgression.

If Bob had met you once, he considered you a friend. Once a friend, he’d never abandon you. Bob McGraw would help anyone who asked, even when they didn’t deserve his attentions, and he was unyielding in his support. That was his hallmark, and it served him for nearly 84 years.

Robert Paul McGraw passed away in his home on Jan. 18th, 2013. He is survived by his wife, Cicely, his sons David M. McGraw, Steven L. McGraw and wife Melanie and their two children Sean and Mallory, and Dr. R. Paul McGraw, Jr. and wife, Dr. Nancy L. Newhouse, and daughter Lauren McGraw.

Public visitation will be held on Saturday morning, January 26th at the Good Shepherd Congregation of the Community of Christ Church at 4341 Blue Ridge Boulevard in Kansas City, Missouri, at 9:30am. Funeral services will be held immediately afterwards at the church, beginning at 11am.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Rinehart Foundation at the UMKC School of Dentistry, The American Heart Association, or to Graceland University.