Reflections on 110 Years of Educating

Three faculty members give their take on what it’s been like educating at Palmer College.

After 125 years (and counting), the wealth of chiropractic knowledge, experience and history contained within Palmer’s walls is staggering to consider. Within each faculty member, too, lives a piece of that history. We sat down with three faculty members who have spent a combined 110 years teaching Palmer graduates. Here are their reflections on what they’ve seen — and why they still love every minute of it.

A COLLEGE AND PROFESSION THAT CONTINUES TO EXPAND ITS REACH
Steven Wild, D.C. (Main, `70), attended Palmer College with his sights set on joining his dad’s practice after graduation. He did just that, practicing for 36 years while also teaching at Palmer, as he still does today.

A lot has changed since Dr. Wild started at Palmer. “The student-learning experience is the most significant change within the College I’ve seen over the years,” he says. “When I started, students had to sit on adjusting tables. We used blackboards and chalk. Technology has changed everything, and it’s a much more comfortable learning environment.”

But the biggest change in the profession has been the improvement in interprofessional cooperation. “I remember when one of the first major studies came out about the effect of chiropractic care on recurrent ear infections, and I almost immediately began to receive more referrals for children suffering from ear infections,” he recalls. “I’m excited about how many more people we’re impacting today as a result.”

Each year, Dr. Wild calls roughly 400 students who are considering attending Palmer. “Students today have a strong idea of why they want to become a Doctor of Chiropractic. They understand the dangers of having to rely on opioids, and people want to move away from reliance on prescription pain medication. They understand how chiropractic care can help patients live a higher quality of life and want to make that difference.”

A PASSION FOR IMPROVING HEALTH CARE
William DuMonthier, D.C. (Main, `79), has taught for Palmer since 1979. He started at Palmer Main and then took the chance to practice in Southern France briefly before moving to Palmer West.

“When I started teaching at Palmer, a lot of our students didn’t have a science background,” Dr. DuMonthier recalls. “They had careers as truck drivers or were in the military before changing to chiropractic. Now, our students come from related backgrounds, they’re more prepared academically and they’re very passionate about improving health care.”

Over the more than 40 years he’s been with Palmer, interacting with students has been Dr. DuMonthier’s greatest reward. “Chiropractic attracts great people. Our students really want to help people. They’re caring and fun to be around,” he says. “I still hear from and see alumni from my early days with Palmer, and they’re doing exceptional things. Likewise, when our alumni encounter current students, they’re equally impressed with how engaged students are in the profession.”

STUDENTS ON THE HUNT FOR ANSWERS
LaRose, M.B.B.S., M.Med., taught medicine all over the world, with stops in the West Indies, South Africa, Manitoba, Liberia and Hawaii. But his introduction to chiropractic came to him by way of a patient who visited him after five doctors had been unable to help her with what was thought to be a peptic ulcer. He treated the patient with the pharmacological treatment backed by the latest research; when that didn’t work, he invited a colleague to consult and found that it was a misaligned vertebra causing her pain.

“The rest, as they say, is history,” says Dr. LaRose.

He transitioned from being the dean of a medical school to an anatomy instructor for Palmer Florida in 2003. And his best moments at Palmer have been with the students who have the most inquisitive minds.

“I love students asking questions, and I work to reward inquisitive thinking. I build into my course an opportunity to earn bonus points every time a student asks me a question related to the content that I don’t know the answer to,” Dr. LaRose says. “Students have 24 hours to find the answer backed up by a scientific paper published in a peer-reviewed journal that’s no more than 10 years old. My best-performing class to date earned 100 points through this exercise, and we all learned from it.”

MORE: Read more from the Spring 2023 issue of Palmer Proud Magazine.