Thursday, October 1, 2009

Profile - John Thatcher

John Thatcher, DC
1347 Larpenteur Ave W (Clinic Location)
St. Paul, MN

From what I know, he was a devoted seminar attendee as well as his brother Robert (Bob) Thatcher beginning in the 1960s. Together they practiced GCT in the Twin Cities until Bob decided sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s to practice Activator. Meanwhile, John was instrumental in getting Gary Pennbaker to be an assistant professor at Northwestern Chiropractic College and to offer the first Gonstead instruction at NWCC (a lunch time program that survived only one semester). Mainly because of his personality, John was left to his own devices to teach the work to others, including myself, in the basement of his clinic in St. Paul. Although he did participate in NWCC's doctor preceptorship program and intership program. His most ardent follower was Dr. Jason Wing Louie ( True Chiropractic, 2489 Rice Street, Suite 130) who, for the most part, assumed his practice following John's death.

John's had two notorious connections to Dr. Gonstead. First was as co-initiator of the GAT program in Dr. Gonstead's last year of life and after that the continuation of the program. John continued to be on GAT's board until it restructured to become the Gonstead Foundation which assumed the Gonstead Clinic in Mount Horeb. Second was when Dr. Gonstead provided four followers (Dr. J. Larry Troxell, Dr. John Thatcher, Dr. Dale Applegate, and Dr. Jim Obert) including John with a letter granting them the right to teach his chiropractic system. This agreement became a conflict of interest between the Gonstead Seminars and those that held the letters and led to future uprest.

John was a graduate of Logan Chiropractic College (late 1950s) and practiced for 47 years. He died in 2005 from cancer. He is survived by his brother Bob, his wife, and two daughters.

- Matt Amman

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