He was born on July 11, 1911 in Guadalajara, Mexico, the son of an American engineer from Boston, and was raised in Central and South America. When he arrived in Los Angeles at age 16 to finish high school, he spoke no English. Yet, when he died in Huntington Beach, California in 1979, this former college president had succeeded in bringing chiropractic training within the orbit of higher education in America.
George Hector Haynes earned a liberal arts degree in chemistry from Loyola University in 1935, and a doctor of chiropractic diploma from the ultra-straight Ratledge System of Chiropractic Schools (RSCS) in Los Angeles the following year (Rehm, 1980, p. 329). It seems like a strange starting point for a man who would move so gracefully through higher education circles in later years. T.F. Ratledge, DC (Keating et al., 1991, 1992), the founder of Haynes' chiropractic alma mater, held disdain for chiropractors with liberal arts degrees, and was so adamantly anti-medical that he refused to enroll any prospective student who had earned medical or osteopathic credentials. One wonders what Ratledge, a 1907 graduate of the original Carver/Denny School in Oklahoma City, must have thought when Haynes and his older cousin Henry G. Higley, DC, both of whom were members of the Ratledge School faculty, authored a textbook on chemistry for chiropractic students in 1938, but the book was adopted by the RSCS. At about the same time, Haynes became an associate in the private practice of Helen G. Sanders, DC, co-author of Aquarian Age Healing.
Although there was an eight year difference in their ages, Haynes and Higley were intellectually inseparable and would work together throughout their respective careers. George was the quiet fellow, Henry the gregarious socialite. Dr. Haynes earned a master's degree in chemistry from the University of Southern California in 1938; Dr. Higley developed expertise as a statistician. They made a good team, working first as faculty members at the RSCS, and next as political activists in the swirl of interprofessional politics that surrounded the California Medical Association's 1942 effort to pass a basic science bill in California. The bill would probably have reduced the license eligibility of chiropractors in the Golden State, but was soundly defeated by the voters (Gevitz, 1988). It was said that chiropractors enjoyed a much higher status within the legislature at Sacramento for the next 10 years.
GENERAL CHEMISTRY
by HAYNES and HIGLEY
1938 EDITION
This Text fully covers the organic field as well as the inorganic.
One complete chapter on Vitamins and Hormones.
Organic elements as found in food outlined in detail in reference to the human body requirements.
261 pages of valuable information for the busy doctor -- cloth bound -- gold lettered edition. Price $3.50.
Order from the Scientific Chiropractor -- Suite 403, 1031 So. Broadway, Los Angeles.
Note: The authors of this splendid book are donating a portion of the sales price on each order to the chiropractic amendment campaign fund.
[The advertisement above first appeared in the January, 1939 issue of The Scientific Chiropractor (4(8):27), a monthly publication of the broad-scope state association, the National Affiliated Chiropractors of California.]
Sometime in the early 1940s, Haynes and Higley became trustees of the Southern California College of Chiropractic (SCCC), the nonprofit, professionally-controlled institution that derived from the Cale College of Chiropractic, founded by Charles A. Cale, DC, N.D. in 1925 (Keating et al., 1994). In doing so, they had taken a path directly opposite from Ratledge, their chiropractor mentor, and were in fact now competing with him for students. As college trustees, the duo were behind-the-scenes players in the 1947 merger (orchestrated by NCA director of education John J. Nugent, DC and SCCC president Ralph J. Martin, DC, ND) of the SCCC and the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic (LACC). This merger brought into existence today's non-profit LACC. George and Henry were made department chairs in chemistry and physiology, respectively, of the new LACC.
In the early 1950s Dr. Haynes was appointed director of clinics and then assistant dean in the administration of Raymond Houser, DC, ND, dean, and Ralph Martin, DC, ND, president. Dr. Houser deserves recognition for finding and negotiating for the Glendale campus, where the LACC operated from 1950 through 1980. George Haynes, on the other hand, earned the respect of the members of the college board of trustees for the many donations he solicited from the field and suppliers, with which the new campus was furnished and equipped. In 1953, when Houser chose to resign from the college, George Haynes was named administrative dean (CEO) of the college. Although he was not granted the title of President until 1974 (it was thought that an individual with an academic doctorate was essential for federal recognition of the school), Haynes was in fact the chief executive officer of the institution.
Dr. Haynes' 23 years at the helm of LACC saw many challenges for the school and the profession. Student enrollments dried up in the 1950s when veterans' benefits expired, and in the early 1960s the American Medical Association launched a renewed campaign to "contain and eliminate" the chiropractic profession (Chapman-Smith, 1989; Wardwelll, 1992). George Haynes brought the necessary skills and demeanor to meet these challenges. Longtime acquaintance Robert B. Jackson, DC, ND, who first met Haynes while both were assisting recent graduates prepare for state board examinations, recalls that:
" ... Among George Haynes' special qualities were his willingness to tackle any problem, and his ability to make his associates feel valued and respected. He was a gracious host, and gave freely of his time and knowledge. Indeed, few will ever appreciate how much he sacrificed his privacy and home life to meet his profession's needs. His demeanor was always genuine, never pretentious, sometimes mirthful. He wasn't exceptionally gregarious, but he was always easy to be with." (Jackson, 1998).
In 1961 the National Chiropractic Association (NCA), forerunner of today's ACA, fired John J. Nugent, DC after 20 years in his position as Director of Education. Nugent, branded the "Anti-Christ" of chiropractic by B.J., but recalled as the "Abraham Flexner" of chiropractic education by others (Gibbons, 1985), had been the driving force behind the NCA's educational reform movement. Nugent had made first contact with the United States Office of Education (Chiropractic, 1952), and it was Nugent who pushed and prodded the leaders of the chiropractic colleges to upgrade their institutions and to strive for federal recognition of a chiropractic accrediting agency. With Nugent forced out, George Haynes
" ... gradually assumed much of the leadership which had been carried by Dr. John Nugent. It was particularly necessary at that time that a member of the profession develop the vision, the motivation and the initiative toward our accreditation goals since the office of director of education had become rather fluid after Dr. Nugent stepped out of the position. Dr. Haynes provided these factors ..." (Martin, 1974).
In the mid-1960s, Dr. Janse, president of the National College of Chiropractic in Chicago, served as an expert witness in the trial of chiropractor Jerry England in federal court in Louisiana (Adams, 1965; England vs. Louisiana, 1965). The purpose of the legal proceeding was to challenge the state's insistence that only licensed physicians and surgeons could legally practice chiropractic. The eloquent Dr. Janse was humiliated on the stand by counsel for the allopathic community, who hammered away at the lack of federal recognition for any chiropractic college. Janse, it is recalled, left the courtroom resolved to see his alma mater achieve federal recognition or he would leave the profession.
This was a turning point for the National College, a moment when Janse resolved to bite the bullet and do the hard things that were necessary if federal accreditation were to be achieved. Chiropractor instructors in the basic sciences were replaced by teachers with MS and PhD degree. A two-year, pre-professional liberal arts college requirement was reinstated as an admission's standard. Funds were invested in better laboratory facilities and faculty development. The National College's efforts paid off, and in 1971 the school achieved regional accreditation from the New York State Department of Education (Beideman, 1995). Janse functioned as a national spokesperson for the council to the profession during the final years of effort to achieve federal recognition of the CCE (Fay, 1998).
Table I: Numbers of students enrolled in U.S. chiropractic colleges circa 1974, according to the Association of Chiropractic Colleges
| Schools accredited by ACC | Number of Students |
| Cleveland Chiropractic College/LA* | 485 |
| Cleveland Chiropractic College/KC | 340 |
| Columbia Institute of Chiropractic | 260 |
| Logan College of Chiropractic | 410 |
| Palmer College of Chiropractic | 1,965 |
| Total Students in ACC Schools | 3,460 |
| % of total U.S. chiropractic students | 71.9% |
| Schools accredited by CCE | Number of Students |
| Los Angeles College of Chiropractic | 337 |
| National College of Chiropractic | 600 |
| Northwestern College of Chiropractic | 130 |
| Texas Chiropractic College | 145 |
| Western States Chiropractic College | 140 |
| Total students in CCE schools | 1,352 |
| % of total U.S. chiropractic students | 28.1% |
The task of negotiating with the ACC and the USOE fell to George Haynes and his associate, Orval Hidde, DC, JD. It was a difficult time for Dr. Haynes, not only because of the stresses of his role as CEO of the LACC and chairman of the CCE's "HEW Application Committee" (Haynes, 1972), but also because his lifelong confidant and co-worker, Henry Higley, had died in 1969. Often working alone, Haynes engaged in the tedious educational, bureaucratic and statistical research necessary to learn the procedures of accreditation and to generate the many reports demanded by the federal agency. Meanwhile, the Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards, frustrated by the inability of the two chiropractic agencies to resolve their differences and submit an unified petition to the USOE, increased the pressure it could bring to bear on both the ACC and the CCE.
George Haynes' health began to fail him. In the final stretch, Dr. Hidde stepped in to pick up the baton. On August 26, 1974, Dr. Hidde, then serving as chairman of the CCE's commission on accreditation, received a letter from U.S. Commissioner of Education T.H. Bell (Bell, 1974) indicating that the CCE would be added to the "list of nationally recognized accrediting agencies and associations" (Chirogram, 1975). It was the achievement of a lifetime, and a milestone for the chiropractic profession.
George Haynes brought his presidency at the LACC to an end in 1976 and was succeeded by A. Earl Homewood, DC, ND, LLB, and very soon thereafter by W. Heath Quigley, DC, MS. In his final years, as he struggled with multiple myeloma, he served as a member of the board of trustees of the Pasadena College of Chiropractic (Kirby, 1979). His family recalls that he simply would not sit around idly; this quiet, intellectually gifted and hard-working man had to find something useful with which to occupy himself.
George Haynes, DC, MS met his creator on May 8, 1979. Although he received recognition for his eminently productive career in the last few years of his life (e.g., Bromley, 1975), and though his major accomplishment, the recognition of the CCE, is well known to chiropractors, George Haynes himself is not very well remembered by those whose time in the profession is less than the mere two decades since he left us. Unlike Joe Janse, who labored strenuously to rally the members of the profession to support the campaign for higher standards of training and federal recognition of chiropractic schools, George Haynes has not yet taken his rightful place in the annals of chiropractic history.
Yet here was a quiet man, a chiropractor who moved gracefully and confidently within the circles of higher education. Here was a gentleman who never sought the limelight, who tread softly as he covered long distances. Here was a nobleman of the profession who labored diligently behind the scenes and followed his vision to a loftier station for chiropractic. His life story merits further scrutiny.
References
If your interest in chiropractic history has been stimulated, then consider joining the Association for the History of Chiropractic (AHC). Founded at Spears Hospital in Denver in 1980, the AHC is a nonprofit membership organization whose goal is the discovery, dissemination and preservation of the saga of chiropractic. The AHC held its first annual conference on chiropractic history at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. in 1980, and has held similar conferences each year since at various chiropractic colleges.
The AHC's 1999 Conference on Chiropractic History will be held at the University of Bridgeport College of Chiropractic, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Details about the upcoming conference can be obtained by contacting the college:
University of Bridgeport College of Chiropractic
75 Linden Avenue
Bridgeport, CT 06601 USA
Tel: (203) 576-4336; fax: (203) 576-4351
Glenda Wiese, MA, Executive Director
Association for the History of Chiropractic
1000 Brady Street
Davenport, IA 52803 USA
Historical Fund
National Institute of Chiropractic Research
P.O. Box 80317
Phoenix AZ 85060-0317 USA
When sports chiropractors first appeared at the Olympic Games in the 1980s, it was alongside individual athletes who had experienced the benefits of chiropractic care in their training and recovery processes at home. Fast forward to Paris 2024, where chiropractic care was available in the polyclinic for all athletes, and the attitude has now evolved to recognize that “every athlete deserves access to sports chiropractic."
It is estimated that 61% of patients with CTS avoid taking surgical options due to postoperative complications and costly surgical procedures. Chiropractic care offers a comprehensive and effective treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome, addressing the condition from multiple angles. Recent studies also have unveiled a game-changing adjunct to chiropractic treatments for CTS: nerve flossing.
Some doctors thrive in a personality-based clinic and have a loyal following no matter what services or equipment they offer, but for most chiropractic offices who are trying to grow and expand, new equipment purchases help us stay relevant and continue to service our client base in the best, most up-to-date manner possible. So, regarding equipment purchasing: should you lease, get a bank loan, or pay cash?
