A century of influence: Part 3. The modern era

•Orthodontists born after 1920 came of age as university programs were expanding.•Postgraduate university education replaced proprietary schools and preceptorships.•Graduates made orthodontic education available across the country.

The story of orthodontics during the first 100 years of Journal publication can be told through the people who lived it. As part of the American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics Centennial Celebration, we present 100 people who most influenced the specialty during the last 100 years. Part 3 concludes with “The Modern Era” and describes those born in 1920 or later. They came of age near or after the end of World War II. Proprietary orthodontic schools and preceptorship training were giving way to expanding postgraduate university programs. The graduates of these rigorous programs fanned out across the country, making orthodontic specialty education available to an ever-widening circle of students and orthodontic treatment to new generations of patients.