Word has been received that A.E. Homewood has just passed away. For one of the few times in my life I find it difficult to know what to say. The tributes that follow will do that more eloquently than I ever could. In reality I hardly knew Dr. Homewood; on a few occasions I had the pleasure of conversing with him and we corresponded a few times. In fact, I was never in a class that he taught and never heard a lecture that he gave. Yet I feel that he profoundly affected the direction of my life.
Some 25 years ago a member of my family had a problem that all the people in medicine, with their knives and miraculous nostrums, couldn't help. After much suffering we ventured with great apprehension to a chiropractor. In but one visit, he did with his hands what no one else had been able to accomplish. Astounded by what the chiropractor had done I decided to read as much as I could on the subject. Why did it help? How could I learn more about it? Thus began my journey towards becoming a chiropractor.
For months I haunted libraries and bookstores. Finally I went to the bookstore at Los Angeles College of Chiropractic where it was suggested I read the Neurodynamics of the Vertebral Subluxation by A.E. Homewood, D.C. For the next few days I couldn't put the book down. It all seemed to make sense. In this brief text the value and validity of maintaining structural integrity was explained in clear and concise terms. Over and over I read and underlined it and even typed up an outline chapter complete with illustrations. A.E. Homewood had, with his book, influenced me not just to study chiropractic, but to become a chiropractic physician. He lit a flame within me with the fire of his words that still burns.
So now, we are tempted to say that he is gone. But he really isn't. His words and ideas live on in the thousands like myself, whom he influenced over his many years as an author, lecturer, teacher and physician. These people in turn pass a torch of his knowledge on to others to the benefit of their patients and colleagues. Dr. A.E. Homewood dead? Never -- not as long as there is a person on this earth whose suffering is relieved through chiropractic. What follows are but a few of the tributes that have been received at "DC" when it was learned that Dr. Homewood had passed away. We publish them as a small tribute to an irreplaceable friend and colleague.
Richard Tyler, D.C.
Associate Editor,
Dynamic Chiropractic
To My Friend, Dr. A. Earl Homewood: (1917-1990)
As a professional, Dr. Earl Homewood was a soldier of stability with incalculable giving to his country, profession and family. As a crusader, his life was unequaled. His uniqueness was exemplified by being president of two colleges -- Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College and Los Angeles College of Chiropractic. His individual touch and concern for each college and all students, internationally, lives in infinity. The success of the colleges is merited, in part, to his leadership and dedication.
Earl and I shared the same town for many years, wherein we had many opportunities to exchange our thoughts, beliefs, and ideas. Through these exchanges, I came to understand his desire to aspire to a modest means of life, yet he always managed to be on the firing line with the issue of the day. Just prior to his passing he attended the Pinellas County Chiropractic Society meeting, displaying a continuing interest for the profession, exemplifying his life. His knowledge of the chiropractic profession was neither exceeded nor excelled by anyone.
Dr. Homewood impressed me with his selflessness and his craving desire and need to help the children of the lesser world. His obituary reads that he sponsored eight Vietnamese boys. Instead, it should read he gathered eight homeless boys, fathered and mothered each with care that was unequaled -- singularly. As a single parent, with each, he lived with sorrow and disappointment, relishing in their success and happiness, asking not for praise or commendation for either. In the end he received and is granted the greatest tribute of all: serving a profession for which we are totally indebted and appreciative. Serving humanity in a most loving manner, making life for the unfortunate fortunate, and by his actions and deeds a better place to live. He who serves the best, profits the most. Thank you, Earl.
Your Friend,
Lee E. Arnold, D.C.
Past President,
National College of Chiropractic
Dr. Homewood came to the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic in 1970, when he served as an assistant administrative dean. After four years of successful progress, Dr. Homewood was named dean of LACC.
While dean, Dr. Homewood worked with the students, administration, and faculty to continually improve and upgrade the college. He also worked with the administration to create the accreditation process for chiropractic institutions nationwide.
In 1976, Dr. Homewood took direction of LACC when Chairman of the Board of Regents, Dr. Martin, announced Dr. Homewood's new position, acting president.
While Dr. Homewood was involved with the college, he set a fast pace for improvement and enlargement of the Glendale facility. He took the leadership at a time when LACC was beginning a program of expansion and improvement for new and modern classroom space.
"From the time Dr. Homewood entered into the profession until the time of his death," Dr. Drake said, "he busied himself with the task of making his chosen profession greater year by year."
E. Maylon Drake, D.C., President
Los Angeles College of Chiropracticc
Whittier, California
The Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College and the Canadian chiropractic profession, mourn the passing of one of our most illustrious members, A. Earl Homewood.
Dr. Homewood has long been recognized as a superlative educator who influenced the thinking of chiropractors around the globe, particularly in North America, for the past 45 years, by his erudite presence and his prolific writing. One of his books, The Neurodynamics of the Vertebral Subluxation, has been used as a text in a number of chiropractic colleges for over 25 years, and throughout his career he made sustained contributions to a variety of professional publications.
At CMCC he was renowned for his academic acumen and administrative skill as well as his prodigious capacity to endure long hours, hard work and inadequate remuneration. When CMCC opened its doors in 1945, Dr. Homewood began teaching technique, anatomy and jurisprudence. By 1952 he had added the roles of business administrator and dean to his schedule, and in 1959 shouldered as well, the burdens of president of the CMCC Association and chairman of its Board of Management.
Dr. Homewood left CMCC in 1961 to make indelible marks on the Lincoln and Los Angeles Colleges. He returned to CMCC in 1966 and saved the college from insolvency by traversing Canada to sell the profession $250,000 in debentures. In 1967, as president of CMCC, he was instrumental in negotiating a favorable contract for the auspicious move of the college to its present location.
The many graduates of CMCC who were privileged to have studied under Dr. Homewood will always remember this wiry, intense, scholarly, demanding, dogmatic, kind, compassionate, humble humanitarian. His lectures were substantial meals of practical information, peppered with historical anecdotes and salted with the precepts of D.D. Palmer that filled us with pride in our unique past and passion for our formidable future.
A. Earl Homewood is gone, never to return, but his intellect, courage and altruism remain as a beacon of inspiration to light our way into the 21st century.
Douglas M. Brown, D.C.
Don Mills, Ontario, Canada
He was many things to me during the 45 years of our professional association. First, he was my teacher and then my mentor. Later he became my employer, and much later, my employee. But most of all, he was my friend. I shall miss our telephone conversations, and head-to-head meetings in Toronto.
The chiropractic profession has lost one of its more controversial personalities. He may well have been the last of that stubborn generation of post-WWII renaissance academic leaders to guide a recalcitrant and obstreperous profession to academic excellence, research and accreditation. Indeed, he was tenacious, cantankerous and totally uncompromising about chiropractic principles, as he had come to view them.
Of all his accomplishments, the one that stands out most prominently is his classical work, The Neurodynamics of the Vertebral Subluxation. There can be little doubt that Earl Homewood unleashed the full potential for the scientific underpinning of his beloved principles, in this remarkable review of the then scientific literature that supported those principles. The impact on the profession and its colleges was phenomenal. I have no doubt that his work sparked much research for that time.
It is true that Dr. Homewood believed he had provided all that was necessary to establish the scientific basis for chiropractic, and that further basic science research would only confirm his premises. Because of this, he favored clinical trial studies to better understand the scope of chiropractic practice. I believe he was wrong, and what glorious debates we had on the issue from time to time. Regardless, my respect and admiration only grew for this "bulldog" personality, who even now haunts my belief system.
God speed, Earl; we love you and miss you.
Herbert J. Vear, D.C.
Pickering, Ontario, Canada
On February 26, 1990, the chiropractic profession lost its most dedicated educator, lecturer, professor, former chiropractic college president, and very close friend of mine, Dr. A. Earl Homewood. He passed away at his home, during his sleep, at the age of 73.
Dr. Homewood was born on September 5, 1916, in Toronto, Ontario, and was educated through high school and Shaw's Business College (complete office training) in Toronto. He continued his education with specialized undergraduate and graduate education in professional colleges throughout the United States, as follows: University of Natural Healing Arts, Denver, Colorado, Doctor of Physical Therapy, 1941; Western States Chiropractic College, Portland, Oregon, Doctor of Chiropractic, 1942; Western States Chiropractic College, Portland, Oregon, Bachelor of Therapeutic Arts, 1948; Philadelphia College of Naturopathy, Philadelphia, Pennsylania, Doctor of Naturopathy, 1955; Blackstone School of Law, Chicago, Illinois, Bachelor of Laws, 1960.
Upon honorable medical discharge from Royal Canadian Naval duty in 1945, following three years of service during WWII aboard a corvette naval ship in the North Atlantic, a professional career commenced as a general practitioner of chiropractic and naturopathy, followed immediately by appointment as a charter faculty member of the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College in Toronto, September 18, 1945. From 1945 to 1952, he taught all branches of gross anatomy and human dissection to classes of approximately 90 students. He assumed direction of the college in 1952, discontinuing private practice. As administrative dean, he continued to teach central neurology, chiropractic principles, adjustive technique, and chiropractic jurisprudence, in varying semesters. Dr. Homewood's title changed from administrative dean to president-dean, and the number of courses he taught decreased with the growth of the institution and the responsibilities of office, which for two years included the chairmanship of the board of directors and the board of management.
The administrative responsibilities of this professionally owned and operated college, consisting of two buildings of approximately 36,000 square feet, with 150 to 250 students and a staff of approximately 30, ranging from maintenance, supportive clerical, faculty and administrative, were extensive. The academic organization, budgeting and purchasing of additional properties, as well as stimulating an ever-broadening and deepening curriculum, added demanding details.
In 1961, it became obvious that Dr. Homewood's volume of responsibility and effort were too demanding on his health. Thus, the position was resigned with dean emeritus status being awarded in recognition of service without a day of sick leave taken. A president, dean, business administrator, and an additional faculty member were hired to share the voluminous responsibilities that had grown with the position.
The following year, Dr. Homewood devoted his time to recuperation and restoration of his health. During this period, he authored The Neurodynamics of the Vertebral Subluxation, a textbook now in its third edition, utilized to varying degrees by ten chiropractic colleges and having worldwide distribution and recognition. He wrote a second textbook, The Chiropractor and the Law, which was published in 1965.
In 1962, he accepted an invitation to assume the position of business administrator and chairman of the Department of Chiropractic of the Lincoln College of Chiropractic, Indianapolis, Indiana. The need for student procurement was obvious to Dr. Homewood. He undertook this project and was able to double the enrollment within two years. Later, an unfortunate "political" clash between the president and the chairman of the board of directors of this college resulted in the resignation of the president and Dr. Homewood, as administrator. Shortly after his resignation from Lincoln College of Chiropractic, Dr. Homewood accepted the position of chairman of the Department of Chiropractic for the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic, Glendale, California, where he taught classes in both principles and techniques for approximately two years.
Following shortly after this teaching term at the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic, Dr. Homewood's tremendous administrative talents were called upon by the dean of the Canadian Chiropractic Association. The task assigned to Dr. Homewood was to develop a chiropractic college within the University of Brandon, Brandon, Manitoba. This endeavor entailed travel across Canada where he visited numerous universities and colleges to acquire ideas as to construction, organization and development of a new chiropractic facility within a university setting. Unfortunately, political changes in the government, along with the resignation of the university president lead to the termination of these plans.
Termination, however, was never an end for Dr. Homewood, but the beginning of a new challenge. The Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College held such a challenge. The school was in the midst of serious financial difficulty, as there was a $500,000 mortgage, together with 12% interest, about to come due, and there was no means of satisfaction available. Dr. Homewood, in light of the challenge at hand, accepted the presidency in 1965. He helped raise $250,000 within six weeks, from the profession, by debenture sales and the remainder by a bank loan to reduce the interest to 7%. One hundred thousand dollars of the money raised by the profession was subsequently cancelled, and very few of the other creditors accepted interest payments.
Mr. Gerard H. Moog, a very successful developer, and president of Canada Square, had displayed a strong interest in Dr. Homewood's dedication to the chiropractic profession, and was involved in a trade of property and construction of a facility for the college. Mr. Moog, backed by years of experience, would work only with a small committee, thus one member of the board, Dr. Howard L. Gauthier, Dr. D.C. Sutherland, secretary of the association, and Dr. A. Earl Homewood, as president of the college, formed that committee. Dr. Gauthier was an active practitioner with little free time for such a committee, and Dr. Sutherland had many other duties, thus the bulk of the responsibility fell upon Dr. Homewood.
At the annual meeting of the board of directors, composed of representatives of all provinces who, in their infinite wisdom, and without displaying the necessary vertebrae among the 15 of them for one to provide a reason, excuse or cause, Dr. A. Earl Homewood found himself without a job, two weeks of severance pay and no pension. The college was without a president for the next few years. No explanation has ever been obtained to this date.
Dr. Homewood's association with the Council on Chiropractic Education had been as a representative of a foreign college, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, where he held a watchful brief, from the early days of the college. CCE elected Dr. Homewood to the Commission on Accreditation as an administrator of one of the member colleges, Los Angeles Chiropractic College, also to the position of secretary, then to vice president of the CCE.
The year 1976 saw the appointment of several new members to the Board of Regents of the LACC who, before they had their chairs warmed, began assuming administrative functions, far over-reaching the provisions of the Administrative Manual, creating unpleasantness and polarizing faculty and staff. Dr. Homewood's resignation was precipitated by the appointment, to the office of dean, of a faculty member who was totally unsuited for that position.
From 1976 to 1979, Dr. Homewood took residency in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he devoted his free-time to assisting in the teaching of English, at home, as a second language to refugees from Vietnam and Laos.
In 1979, Dr. Homewood accepted the position of distinguished professor with the Western States Chiropractic College. Upon his arrival in Portland, Dr. Homewood learned that a new president of the WSCC had been hired, a former student of Dr. Homewood's, faculty member and dean for Dr. Homewood at CMCC. Courses were taught in chiropractic principles, jurisprudence, ethics, geriatrics and chiropractic technique as extracurricular courses at students' requests. Service on a number of committees was a part of his contribution.
In 1982, with Dr. Homewood in his 66th year, the executive vice president of WSCC determined that retirement was in order. So Dr. Homewood moved back to St. Petersburg, Florida for final retirement. The year 1983 was spent in editing, updating and expanding Anatomical Adjustive Technic, which was published and distributed by the Parker Chiropractic Research Foundation.
Dr. Homewood was survived by a sister, Dr. Gwyneth Pyne, and a niece and nephew, as his only close blood relatives. However, beginning with the fall of Saigon in 1975 to the present, he had provided a home for a total of eight Vietnamese refugee fellows who call him "father." Four of these are now married, and only one lived at Dr. Homewood's residence.
In summary it can be said that his life was the model of a man dedicated to profession and to mankind. God bless Dr. A. Earl Homewood in that we, as doctors of chiropractic, strive to fulfill his dreams of continued excellence in the practice of chiropractic.
Gregory A. Schweitzer, D.C.
Clearwater, Florida
Few people in the profession will ever match the commitment to chiropractic which Dr. Earl Homewood (1916-1990) displayed throughout his long career. His service as faculty member, dean and/or president of four chiropractic colleges is overshadowed only by his legacy as a scholar during chiropractic's middle ages. His volume, Chiropractic and the Law offered original insights into the profession's status, and his Neurodynamics of the Vertebral Subluxation was for many years the most scholarly treatise available concerning the chiropractic lesion.
Earl Homewood loved to argue. He held strong opinions on a wide range of topics related to chiropractic and naturopathy and reveled in disputing the important professional issues of his day. His quarrelsome nature occasionally offended, but for those with thick skin there was always the opportunity to agree to disagree, and share a cup of coffee. Dr. Earl was adamant in his rationalist orientation to chiropractic practice, and skeptical of the value of controlled investigation of the clinical art. He was no less insistent, however, on the need for critical dialogue on such issues.
It was my pleasure to know Dr. Homewood in this capacity, and I shall ever be grateful for the insights he provided about the evolution of chiropractic education in those decades before the CCE was recognized by the federal government. His generation did not enjoy the luxury of disputing the fine points or necessity of clinical research in chiropractic; his role as president of several impoverished colleges was a continuing struggle to meet the next mortgage payment. And yet, despite continued hardships, he found time to dream of what might be and to share his vision through speeches and scholarly works with his colleagues.
Dr. Homewood now belongs to the ages. Yet, today we enjoy the fruits of his love and perseverance on behalf of chiropractic. May he always be remembered as a pioneer and scholar at a time when the profession's longevity was in doubt, and as an individual who gave of himself unstintingly so that chiropractic would reach its full potential.
Joseph C. Keating, Jr., Ph.D.
Associate Professor,
Palmer College of Chiropractic-West
Sunnyvale, California
