91´ÎÔª

“I Have to Be a Griz”: Bob Malloy — Biologist, Dentist, Orthodontist, and Historian 

We're excited to feature MA student Bob Malloy in our Fall 2025 student spotlight. Bob sat down with PhD student Harry DeVoe to talk about his path to our program.

Q: Tell me briefly about your life before attending the 91´ÎÔª. 

A: I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and went to undergrad at Louisville University as a first-generation college student. No one in my family had ever been to college, so there wasn’t a lot of guidance there. I would go and then quit and work. Go back to school, quit, go back to work. So, six years, I earned a bachelor’s degree in biology. I still needed work, so I thought about teaching. I taught high school for four years at an inner-city school in Louisville. I coached baseball in the spring and soccer in the fall. Made a lot of money, thirteen thousand dollars was my salary. But I didn’t care. That was plenty of money for me for what I was doing, but I sort of burnt out a little. And I thought I’ll do something different. So, I joined the Peace Corps, taught in a teachers’ college in Samoa for two years. When I came back, I planned to go to medical school. I had a dental exam and the dentists asked, “do you ever think about going to dental school?” I said no and they said “well, we’ll get you an interview if you’re interested.” So, I went and got into dental school. Next thing I know, I worked in Alaska at Alaska Native Medical Center. I loved the people I worked with, so instead of going into private practice I went to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. That’s where my two kids were born. I loved it, but I didn’t want to be a dentist. I tried to salvage my career and went back to orthodontics which is a little less invasive. I did my residency at the University of Rochester. Then came back and practiced orthodontics in Montana for 15 years. My main office was in Bozeman, but I traveled all over the state. I was tired of doing that, so we went back to Rochester where I taught and ran the orthodontics clinic at the Eastman Institute of Oral Health for 5 years. 

Q: Why did you decide to return to school to get a master’s in history? 

A: We moved back to Montana during COVID, and I worked in Billings for a couple of years. When I wrapped that up, I had been thinking about either law school or history when I heard my son, he was in med school, studying one time and talking. I was like, I don’t want to do that, just memorize facts. So, I ended up reaching out to Kyle (Volk) and Wade (Davies), super nice. I didn’t know anyone here. I didn’t even know if you could do a master’s in history if your whole background was science. You get tired of doing some things, you know? I never wanted to do dental work forever. I love the 91´ÎÔª. Both my kids graduated from here. I always had fun in Missoula. This was the only school I really wanted to go to. I’d taken history classes at MSU a couple times but no, I just wanted to do this here because it’s UM, it’s the Griz. I have to be a Griz before I die. 

Q: You received an award for presenting your research on the “Indian Wars” and “soldier’s heart” at Phi Alpha Theta in Spring 2025. What brought you to this topic?

A: I was just writing about this in my thesis proposal. You know those readings from Wade’s Indigenous history readings course? Lakota America and the Indian Wars. After reading those, just out of nowhere I was like, all this trauma, PTSD and everything, what about back then? Did they even recognize it? One afternoon, I was looking through stuff, and I saw “soldiers’ heart” a shorthand term for the signs and symptoms of mental trauma in federal troops serving in the West, which I had never heard of. This was the first time in the US that people had recognized the mental trauma of war. I found a lot of recent works on trauma from the Civil War, but I couldn’t find anything on Indian Wars soldiers. I found newspaper articles of soldiers being transported from the West back to Washington DC for insanity. I found these same soldiers in St. Elizabeth, the government hospital for the insane. That was an aha moment.

Q: What is the experience you have been most proud of at UM, so far?

A: I’m really most proud of fitting in with these nice younger people. Probably one of my biggest concerns was that they would look at this old guy sitting at the end of the table and be like “whatever, dude.” But my classmates are incredible. Young, bright, and totally accepting. The best thing is to come here and just fit in and have that energy again and not even think about myself as being “the old person.” The people here are amazing! From the professors to all of you graduate students. It’s been way better than I could have dreamed. I’ve never met people that are so helpful and kind. If anything comes out of this interview, I want to give a shout out to classmates and professors. What I’m most proud of is that you all have accepted me.