When I started at Cleveland, it was on 37th and Troost. It consisted of two houses and a building. My dad was a pharmacist. His brother was a medical doctor, and I thought I would go into that profession, but I changed my mind after I was helped by a chiropractor for a problem that nobody else helped me with. You’ll hear stories like that all over the place, but my success with him convinced me that this (chiropractic) should be interesting to look into, which I did.

The instructor I had the most respect for was Dr. E. C. Prowell. He was teaching what they called lower-division anatomy in those days, and he saw me. I had questions in my eyes, and I had questions in class. One day he came and put his arm on my shoulder and said, “You have some questions like ‘do I really want to be here?’ And I said, “Yeah, I do have that question.” He said, “I can see it in your face, I can hear it in your questions, but stick it out. You’ll see it’ll be worth your while.” He gave me a pep talk, which to this day I still cherish, because he took the time to see the questions in my eyes. He knew that I was about ready to give up, which I probably would have had he not taken the time to do that.

When I finished school, Dr. Prowell said, “I’m about ready to give it up, would you entertain the thought of becoming a teacher here, because you’re qualified?” I passed all my boards, got my diploma, you know, C.S. Jr. signed off on it, all of the above. So, I started teaching lower-division anatomy, and the classes changed incrementally. They became more intense. And as the new students came in, we had a different caliber of students that had more education prior to going into chiropractic. There wasn’t a requirement that you have a college degree, or even two-year college degree. In those days, you had to have a high school diploma.

I taught there up until ’79, but not full-time, because I opened up an office not very far away on Troost…55th and Troost. Dr. Cleveland asked me if I would like to continue instructing. I watched the current president of the school, Dr. Carl, he was a student in some of my classes. I went up to Carl and I said “Carl, I’m going to be leaving the faculty here. So, you’re gonna have to take my classes.” He said, “What?” And if you ask him why he is where he is today, it was partially, because of what I did to him by saying, “Hey, I’m leaving. It’s your job. Take over.” And that’s how he evolved because I don’t think when he was a student, he had any intentions of doing what he’s doing today. I think he had other ideas about his future. Well, his future changed when I said, “It’s up to you to continue on.”