Johnston, E. Melvin

Born in Fresno in 1887, Dr. E. Melvin Johnston was educated in the local public schools, graduating from Fresno High School in 1907. He worked in the Kern County oil fields, assisted local dentists, and served on railroad construction crews to finance his professional training, ultimately earning his D.D.S. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in San Francisco in 1912. After completing an eighteen-month assistantship in San Luis Obispo, he returned to Fresno in 1914 to build an independent dental practice.

During World War I, Johnston was commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Dental Reserve Corps, serving at Fort Oglethorpe and Camp Grant before assignment as Dental Surgeon of Base Hospital No. 75. Married to Ethel L. Thomas of San Francisco, with whom he had a son, E. Melvin, Jr., Johnston actively led regional professional organizations, serving as president of the San Joaquin Valley Dental Association and councilman to the California State Dental Association, while maintaining active involvement in the Native Sons of the Golden West and the World War Veterans.