The Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine yesterday announced a senior associate dean will temporarily fill the top spot vacated by longtime dean Spencer Frankl, who died Oct. 20 after battling cancer.

Jeffrey Hutter, an associate dean who was recently named the chairman of the Commission on Dental Accreditation of the American Dental Association, is chairman of the school’s endodontics department and has overseen academic affairs. He will fill the shoes of a dean who remained at the head of the school for 30 years and was revered across the country as a leader in dental medicine.

“It’s a real honor to be given this opportunity and to have that challenge of succeeding someone who left such a mark on the university,” Hutter said in a press release. “I look at it as a wonderful opportunity and will do my best to continue the work that the School of Dental Medicine has been doing for the past 30 years.”

School of Medicine dean Karen Antman, the Medical Campus provost, announced Hutter’s appointment in a separate message to members of the dental school.

“Dr. Frankl was the longest serving dean of any dental school in the country and had recently announced his plan to step down,” Antman said in the message. “Both Boston University President Robert Brown and I are grateful for Dr. Hutter’s willingness to take on this added responsibility.”

Hutter said he plans to continue many of the initiatives Frankl started, such as providing community-based education and service opportunities for students and expanding the school’s global reach through the new BU Institute for Dental Education and Research in Dubai, the release states.

“[Frankl] was very inspirational, and he always treated you as a colleague,” Hutter said in an Oct. 24 Free Press article. “He was always looking to provide you with guidance to become a better educator.”