Family came first for Naples dentist, Zachary Zaban, killed on I-75 crash Friday - Naples Daily News
- Some nights, after a long day of work at his dental practice, Dr. Zachary Zaban would slip over to his parents' new North Naples ice cream shop to run the cash register, lay some tile or just generally help out around the store. He was young and ambitious, and plenty busy with his own work, but to Zaban, family always came first, said his mother, Kelly. “He loved his family, and he loved being humble and helping people,” she said. Zaban, 27, the dentist at Mission Hills Dentistry in North Naples, was killed just after midnight Friday after his 2015 Jeep sport utility vehicle rear-ended a van on Interstate 75 in south Lee County and then struck a pine tree. He was heading home after a night of playing kickball with friends, his mother said. He graduated in 2006 from Palmetto Ridge High School, where he played football and basketball and was voted “best dressed” as a senior, according to the school’s yearbook. After high school, Zaban attended Florida Gulf Coast University, and then moved on to the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine. Norman Macher Jr. , a dental lab technician at the University of Pittsburgh, said he doesn’t usually get to know the students well, but became friends with Zaban. When he came through he would sit here and talk to me. . Even when he didn’t have work to do, he would come in the lab and we would talk, about anything really. Kelly Zaban said she and her oldest son had a special bond that was born out of another family tragedy. Source: www.naplesnews.com
