Lives of Consequence
Dr. Bill Truswell '68, P'01
President, American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
During his more than 40 years of practice, Dr. William H. Truswell Jr. ’68, P’01 estimates he has performed more than 30,000 surgeries, including major head and neck cancer resection and reconstruction, and facial trauma. Today, Truswell’s practices in Easthampton, Mass., and Seabrook Island, S.C. focus on cosmetic facial surgery. In addition to clinical work, he has completed eight medical mission trips to Vietnam, China and Dubai and volunteered his surgical services for Face to Face International, working with children with facial deformities; for the program’s Domestic Violence Project; and for Faces of Honor, performing reconstruction work on uninsured and underinsured veterans.
A frequent lecturer in the United States, South America, Asia and Europe, Truswell has been a member of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS) for more than four decades and serves the academy’s president for the 2017-18 term year. In that role, he works to enforce the AAFPRS’s code of ethics and educate the public to find trained and experienced facial plastic surgeons for their needs.
Truswell believes that to be successful in his profession a person must be not only a talented surgeon but an all-around caregiver. “I have my talent, skills and art,” he says. “That yields good results. When the patient is cared for and happy beyond the mirror’s image, when he or she feels the doctor cares for them, the results are excellent, and the reward is beyond the material.”
His interest in becoming a doctor began when he was a child, when he was drawn to toys with a scientific bent and activities that involved reconstruction. He recalls spending hours tinkering with Erector and chemistry sets and taking apart the family’s clocks and radios for the thrill of putting them back together.
When applying to colleges, Truswell relied partly on the advice of a William Smith graduate and family friend. “Her love of and enthusiasm for the Colleges was contagious,” he says. It also didn’t hurt, Truswell adds, that the Colleges’ pre-med program had “earned the reputation of getting most, if not all, graduating pre-med students into medical school.”
While at the HWS, Truswell was a member of Delta Chi fraternity, Canterbury Club and the Statesmen squash team. As a student of chemistry, Truswell made dean’s list and was an Honors student. He received his medical degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and completed his general surgery training in Syracuse. He completed a dual residency in otolaryngology, head and neck surgery and facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, where he is now a clinical instructor.
Currently the Vice President of the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Truswell will begin a three-year term as president of the board in 2018. He is formerly the Medical President of the Hampshire County chapter of the American Cancer Society and has published several textbooks and papers, including Lasers and Light, Peels and Abrasions-Application and Treatments, Surgical Facial Rejuvenation-A Roadmap to Safe and Reliable Outcomes and Skin Resurfacing and Chemical Peels.
“The rewards from my career have been abundant. But the greatest reward is making people smile,” says Truswell.