{"id":56326,"date":"2016-08-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/"},"modified":"2022-09-02T17:03:57","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T22:03:57","slug":"remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Dr. Gordon Mahanna"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gordon Mahanna, D.D.S., spent his life restoring hope to others.<\/p>\n

As a dental oncologist and maxillofacial prosthodontist, he helped patients of all ages regain a sense of purpose, confidence and self-pride, by recreating facial parts for patients who had lost them to cancer, accidents or congenital defects. <\/p>\n

Dr. Mahanna died July 19 at age 78.<\/p>\n

“He was more than just a doctor. He was the best doctor I’ve ever known and became a dear friend too,” said Jason Schoo, a head and neck cancer survivor who was first treated by Dr. Mahanna in 1995. “He built my first oral appliance. When he gave it to me, he could tell I was down and depressed. So, he put the appliance on the table and said, ‘Let’s talk.’ He took my hand and we prayed and talked for about two hours. It changed my whole outlook. He instilled the spiritual side of medicine in me.”<\/p>\n

Dr. Mahanna kept handy a photo album of his clinic’s successes with dramatic before and after shots of restored noses, eyes, teeth, even faces. “We take these things for granted,” he once said. “Our goal is to get these patients back into their normal psychosocial behavior as quickly as possible.”<\/p>\n

“Gordon improved the quality of peoples’ lives in his own quiet unassuming manner,” said John Niemann of the University of Nebraska Foundation. “He was extremely skillful and did wonderful things for people, and he did it with the utmost humility.”<\/p>\n

A native of Norton, Kan., Dr. Mahanna did his undergrad at Kansas State University and received his D.D.S. (with distinction) in 1963 from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. <\/p>\n

He owned a general restorative dental practice in Hoxie, Kan., for 22 years. In 1986, at age 48, Dr. Mahanna chose to pursue postgraduate studies in prosthodontics at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. After obtaining his certificate in prosthodontics, he enlisted in the maxillofacial prosthetic training program at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. <\/p>\n

In 1989, he joined the faculty at the UNMC College of Dentistry in Lincoln, where he developed a unique practice offering maxillofacial prosthetic services. As the demand for surgical services grew, he relocated his practice to UNMC’s Omaha campus where he founded the service that complements the head and neck oncology practice that exists today. <\/p>\n

He retired in 2006 and was named professor emeritus in the department of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery.<\/p>\n

He is survived by by wife, Nancy; children: Kent (Mari) Mahanna, Thaine Mahanna, Kim (Fred) Mahanna-Bellemere, Todd Neppl, Timothy Setlak, and Theresa Crume (Paul Kelly); many grandchildren and one great grandchild; sister, Joan (Frank) Mosier. Private family services will be held.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former faculty member made a difference for his patients, students and colleagues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":56327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","department-college-of-dentistry","department-intercom","department-unmc-today-todays-headlines","author_override-karen-burbach-unmc-public-relations"],"yoast_head":"\nRemembering Dr. Gordon Mahanna<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former faculty member made a difference for his patients, students and colleagues.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Remembering Dr. Gordon Mahanna\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former faculty member made a difference for his patients, students and colleagues.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Newsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-05T05:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-02T22:03:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Mahanna0805.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"705\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"406\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Keenan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Keenan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"John Keenan\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/59c9598a54f1a531c30cccc1d010ac17\"},\"headline\":\"Remembering Dr. Gordon Mahanna\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-05T05:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-02T22:03:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/\"},\"wordCount\":452,\"commentCount\":7,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Mahanna0805.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/\",\"name\":\"Remembering Dr. Gordon Mahanna\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Mahanna0805.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-05T05:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-02T22:03:57+00:00\",\"description\":\"Former faculty member made a difference for his patients, students and colleagues.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Mahanna0805.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Mahanna0805.jpg\",\"width\":705,\"height\":406},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Remembering Dr. Gordon Mahanna\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"name\":\"Newsroom\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\",\"name\":\"University of Nebraska Medical Center\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":153,\"caption\":\"University of Nebraska Medical Center\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/unmc\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/iamunmc\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/UNMCEDU\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/59c9598a54f1a531c30cccc1d010ac17\",\"name\":\"John Keenan\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/02e74f10e0327ad868d138f2b4fdd6f0\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Remembering Dr. Gordon Mahanna","description":"Former faculty member made a difference for his patients, students and colleagues.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Remembering Dr. Gordon Mahanna","og_description":"Former faculty member made a difference for his patients, students and colleagues.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/","og_site_name":"Newsroom","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu","article_published_time":"2016-08-05T05:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-09-02T22:03:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":705,"height":406,"url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Mahanna0805.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Keenan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@unmc","twitter_site":"@unmc","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Keenan","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/"},"author":{"name":"John Keenan","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/59c9598a54f1a531c30cccc1d010ac17"},"headline":"Remembering Dr. Gordon Mahanna","datePublished":"2016-08-05T05:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-02T22:03:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/"},"wordCount":452,"commentCount":7,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Mahanna0805.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/","name":"Remembering Dr. Gordon Mahanna","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Mahanna0805.jpg","datePublished":"2016-08-05T05:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-02T22:03:57+00:00","description":"Former faculty member made a difference for his patients, students and colleagues.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Mahanna0805.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Mahanna0805.jpg","width":705,"height":406},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/08\/05\/remembering-dr-gordon-mahanna\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Remembering Dr. Gordon Mahanna"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/","name":"Newsroom","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization","name":"University of Nebraska Medical Center","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png","width":500,"height":153,"caption":"University of Nebraska Medical Center"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu","https:\/\/x.com\/unmc","https:\/\/instagram.com\/iamunmc","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/UNMCEDU"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/59c9598a54f1a531c30cccc1d010ac17","name":"John Keenan","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/02e74f10e0327ad868d138f2b4fdd6f0\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82532,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56326\/revisions\/82532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}