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Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee, Sr.Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee, Sr.’’s Lifes Life--Affecting Challenges, Solid Principles, Sound Affecting Challenges, Solid Principles, Sound Philosophy, & Thriving Successes!! View the top video on our Health Scienc-Philosophy, & Thriving Successes!! View the top video on our Health Scienc-es Webpage: es Webpage: http://wiredforsuccess.myshaklee.com/us/en/about_healthhttp://wiredforsuccess.myshaklee.com/us/en/about_health--sciences.htmlsciences.html..
A Tribute to Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee, Sr.
By Dr. Richard O. Brouse
Reflections on a Philosophy
— Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee Sr., 1894-1985
"I believe that the numerous transformations sustained by our processed food generally
reduce its nutritional value."
In Remembrance of Dr. Forrest Shaklee
No one has influenced my life as a doctor and scientist as profoundly as Dr.
Forrest Shaklee. The privilege of getting to meet him and question him
about his beliefs, philosophy, struggles and triumphs will remain a part of
me for as long as I live.
That memorable first day I stood before him and introduced myself by
saying, “Dr. Shaklee, I am a professor of nutrition at a natural medical
school and feel that I know almost nothing about the subject,” caused him to
reply, “Young man, you are not far from wisdom for we are all students of
this vast subject. Realizing that we are neophytes opens the doors of
knowledge as nature sees fit. She alone holds the mystery of life and health.
Keep humble and continue to study, listen and practice what you discover to
be true.”
That day in May of 1976 made me a student of the teachings and products
from this wonderful man.
Today, millions of people around the world are re-discovering the Shaklee
story.
Dr. Shaklee & Dr. Brouse
A Tribute to Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee, Sr.
Excerpts from The
Shaklee Story by
R. L. Shook
Life-changing Milestone for Dr. Forrest Shaklee - Tuberculosis
Forrest Shaklee was born in November 1894 in Carlisle, Iowa, the second
son of indigent farmers. The midwife attending the birth immediately
diagnosed consumption (tuberculosis) and the doctors, called in later,
concurred. The baby could not be expected to live long. Observing the child’s
labored breathing, one doctor said that his short life would be a “living
death.”
The only treatment at the time for tuberculosis was good food, fresh air, and
lots of rest. The family moved from the soot and smoke of the Carlisle coal
mines to a farm near Moorland in northern Iowa. Progress was slow,
however, and all of Forrest’s childhood was that of a convalescent, with long
afternoons of solitary bed rest.
On sunny days, the boy spent much of his time out of doors wandering
around the fields. He spent long hours alone, observing nature and thinking.
Lying quietly on an old haystack, he watched animals in their natural
environment and he speculated about the unseen force that guided
migrating birds, and about the instincts that led a sentinel crow to warn the
wild ducks when a hunter approached. Most of all, he was fascinated by the
acute senses and instincts of farm animals. Long before he could detect an
impending storm, the sows in the barnyard would gather husks and straw to
make warm beds in their pens. “Animals listen to the voice of Nature,” he
realized, “while men have forgotten how.”
As Forrest spent so much time out of doors, he was frequently asked to
gather plants and herbs that his mother and her friends used in preparing
folk remedies. He gathered ground ivy, catnip, dandelion, chicory, curled
dock, bergamot, joy-pye weed, wild cherry, goldenrod, and wild ginger.
These he helped brew into teas, mix in salads, or use in the creation of
liniment or tonic.
The boy learned what the man would need to know: how to turn a setback
into an advantage. Forrest did not allow his illness to ruin his life. The time
he spent alone he used ~ developing disciplinary muscles, sharpening his
sense of observation, and learning to think rationally and usefully.
Nature, he observed most, and he came to respect it greatly. Not
surprisingly, he was most fascinated with the healing powers of nature.
Nature has the ability to kill and to heal, he realized, but nature’s ways of
death were far more understandable than its power to heal. How did nature
heal? Was living in harmony with nature the key? Is it possible to live in
harmony with nature in the twentieth century?
By the time he was a teenager, Forrest was “attuned to the signs of Nature’s
revelations.” The solitary summers out-of-doors had laid the foundation for
the philosophy he would develop as a mature man. By this time, also, his
health had improved remarkably. He was able to ride his bicycle
everywhere, to run with his dog, and to spend more time each day active
and less time lying in the sun. Finally the doctors were satisfied that his
tuberculosis had been arrested.
A Tribute to Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee, Sr. Excerpts from The
Shaklee Story by
R. L. Shook
Life-changing Milestone for Dr. Forrest Shaklee - Cancer
In November 1917 Ruth gave birth to their first son, Forrest Clell Shaklee,
Jr. A few months later, the young family moved to Fort Dodge, thirty miles
from Rockwell City. Here Forrest ambitiously opened a facility that
incorporated various specialties of medicine. In addition to a fifteen-bed
sanatorium, the offices contained thirty-two treatment rooms. He hired a
staff that included not only chiropractors but osteopaths, internists, general
practitioners, and surgeons. In the sanatorium, Forrest kept patients on
vitamin-rich diets while he assessed individual needs for dietary
supplements. The clinic soon became busy and prosperous.
Although the clinic was thriving, many of Forrest’s patients were unable to
travel from the country to Fort Dodge, so he continued making house calls.
This was a difficult and time-consuming part of his practice. In 1918, when
the major ode of transportation was still the horse and buggy, the young
doctor purchased and flew a two-passenger Curtis airplane, one that could
land in a patient’s field. While Forrest may not have been the first flying
doctor in the United States, he was certainly the first in Iowa, and soon his
landings were cheered by excited crowds.
In addition to serving as administrator of his clinic, Forrest spent a great
deal of time in X-ray diagnosis. At the time, the hazards of excessive
exposure to X-rays were not fully known, and the precautionary measures
were not as effective as those taken today. In 1921, concerned about severe
ulcerating burns on his left shoulder and left hip, Forrest consulted a cancer
specialist in Chicago.
As he feared, the diagnosis was cancer. The doctor said the arm would have
to be amputated to the shoulder.
“What about my hip?" Forrest asked.
“Your leg will also have to be amputated up to the hip.”
The specialist went on to say that even with amputation, the carcinoma
might be halted for only a few months.
At the specialist’s urging, Forrest agreed to visit the famed Mayo Clinic in
Rochester, Minnesota. The diagnosis was the same: only amputation could
arrest the spread of the cancer.
In the train on the way home, Forrest considered the future that had been
painted for him. His thoughts turned again and again to his son and
young wife, who was expecting another child. By the time he reached
home, he had made a decision. The cancer would not cut his life short, and
he would not become a helpless amputee.
“I will live,” he told Ruth. “I will heal. ,I know I can do it.” With these strong
words, Forrest made a deep commitment to act on his belief in the healing
power of Nature. He’d bet his life on it.
Within a few weeks, he sold the clinic and moved the family back to
Davenport, Iowa. There he began an intensive program of nutrition,
continual blood analysis, and occasional fasting. In order to have the
freshest, most nourishing diet, he regularly drove to the countryside, where
he purchased fruits and vegetables from farmers the same day they were
picked. This diet, he supplemented with large quantities of vitamins and
minerals.
For several months, the ulcerated sores on his shoulder and hip showed no
improvement; Forrest suffered enormous pain. Yet he was certain that his
healing depended on his positive conviction that he would heal; he never let
that conviction waver. On December 2, 1921, he had still another incentive
to live. His second son, Raleigh (nicknamed Lee), was born.
As the months passed, Forrest and Ruth detected a slow but steady
improvement; the ulcerated sores began to heal. By the end of 1922, they
had been replaced by healthy tissue, and Forrest had regained the strength
and energy of full health. Not only was he alive and well again, but the
defeat of the illness convinced him that his ideas on nutrition were
absolutely sound. He was more certain than ever that good nutrition could
help other people too.
In spite of Forrest’s dramatic cure, medical specialists remained skeptical.
When Forrest visited the Chicago clinic, he was told the cancer was only in
remission. Similarly, the Mayo Clinic, while impressed by the "remission",
had no intention of pursuing Forrest’s theories about why healthy cells had
been able to defeat carcinogenic cells.
The nutritional cure was not a simple one, Forrest agreed. First, when he
contracted the illness, he had been a basically healthy person; that was a
highly significant factor. Second, he had followed a diet he thought would
best fit his needs.
Because individuals are unique, “we must approach ourselves and our needs
accordingly.” Certainly, there was no one standard dietary program which
could be applied uniformly to treat disease. The dramatic cure fueled his
fervor to learn more and more about the natural way to health.
About Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee, Sr. Excerpts from The
Shaklee Story by R.
L. Shook
A Chiropractor and More
Given his childhood experiences, it’s not surprising that the subject of health and
wellness always fascinated Forrest. When it was time to pick a career, he decided to
study chiropractic medicine.
He was sometimes asked why he didn’t become a medical
doctor. “I never belittle the medical profession", he once
said, “but we are in two separate fields of endeavor. They
are trained to treat disease. I am interested in building
health.”
He graduated from the Palmer School of Chiropractic in
Davenport, Iowa, in 1915. Though he had enjoyed the
school, he was convinced that
the theory was too narrow. He
disagreed with his instructors
who said that chiropractic was
the only useful health
treatment. “Too many of the
people who came in for
treatment appeared to me to
be overfed and undernourished”, he said.
When Dr. Shaklee established his first practice in
Rockwell City, Iowa, he spoke with his patients about
their diets. Although this was unusual for the time, he
devised detailed nutrition diaries to monitor patients’ progress. What he saw clearly
was that those who regularly ate fresh fruits and vegetables were most likely to
recover quickly from their complaints. When he wasn’t seeing patients, he was
experimenting in his laboratories, focusing on how certain foods related to overall
health.
“I’m interested in building health”
A 1915 portrait
At night he read scientific journals and was particularly interested
in the work of a young Polish biochemist, Casimir Funk, who was
working to isolate natural
compounds that he called
“vitamins.”
Forrest himself had been
experimenting with concentrating
and compounding
vegetables for their mineral
values to make a supplement for
his patients. He called it
Vitalized Minerals.
While he was studying at Palmer, he fell in love with
Ruth Chapin. They were married in December, 1915.
As they returned from their honeymoon, Ruth got a
good glimpse of what married life would be like. They
were met at the train station by a man whose wife
needed immediate attention. Instead of heading off
to their new home together, they raced by horse and
buggy to see the patient.
He experimented to make a
supplement for his patients
About Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee, Sr. Excerpts from The
Shaklee Story by R.
L. Shook
Dr. Shaklee developed food supplements for his patients.
Forrest and friends in front the Curtiss Airplane he used to visit patients
around the state.
As the practice grew, the Shaklee’s began a family. Their first
son, Forrest, Jr., was born in 1917. His younger brother, Raleigh,
known as Lee, was born four years later.
Dr. Shaklee’s interest in nutritional supplements became more
and more serious as he saw positive results with his patients. In
1924, Dr. Shaklee had become successful enough to act on his
dream to build a complete health care center.
The family moved to a larger community, Mason City, and he
opened the Shaklee Clinic. This was a large, fifteen-bed facility
with thirty-two treatment rooms and an X-ray laboratory. He
served as the administrator for a staff of
chiropractors, osteopaths, internists,
general practitioners and surgeons.
In the Shaklee Clinic, for the first time, Dr. Shaklee’s
formulations for food supplements were packaged and dispensed.
In 1928, he developed a sensible diet regimen, which he
recommended to all his patients. This diet was similar to the Food
Guide Pyramid currently recommended by the United States
Department of Agriculture, wit an emphasis on grains, fruits, and vegetables and a
minimum of fats and sugar.
During this time, Dr. Shaklee was
developing another interest. He frequently
delivered sermons at the Christian Church.
His deep, resonating voice and considerable
skills as a speaker began to draw crowds to
the church.
In January, 1929, he was ordained a
minister and in 1933, he officially received
his doctor of divinity degree. His ability to
inspire was a great asset years later when he began to offer the Shaklee business
opportunity. And his deep concern for the spiritual part of life eventually took shape as
the Shaklee philosophy.
The Shaklee boys:
Forrest, Jr. and Lee
His deep concern
for the spiritural
part of life
eventually took
shape as the
Shaklee
Philosophy
About Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee, Sr. Excerpts from The
Shaklee Story by
R. L. Shook
When one door closes, another opens to a New Adventure
One wintry night in early 1929, a fire destroyed Dr. Shaklee’s offices. Among
the losses were all the records of his nutrition experiments. Though he was
insured, he decided to pause before rebuilding. It had been fourteen long
years since he began his practice. It seemed a good time to take a break.
He took one of the clinic vans and outfitted it with bunks, an icebox, running
water from a storage tank, and a closet for fishing gear. This comfortable
home on the road was the ancestor of recreational vehicles. And the
Shaklee’s took off to see the country.
As they reached the West
coast, Dr. Shaklee was
impressed by the year-
round growing season and
rich soils. He was interested
in growing high quality
herbs and vegetables for
nutritional supplements. At
first, the family settled in
Eugene, Oregon, enchanted
by the lush, rich greenery.
But after a year of the rain,
they headed south into the
sunshine.
Dr. Shaklee designed an incredible motor
home to travel across country with his wife
and sons.
Dr. Shaklee opened a new clinic in Oakland, California, across the bay from
San Francisco. It quickly became another successful, lucrative practice. And,
once again,
nutrition was
at its core.
For ten years,
the Shaklee’s
lived well. As
Dr. Shaklee’s
reputation
grew, he was
frequently
asked to
lecture on the
importance of
nutrition. He
was a natural
public speaker.
Both sons went off to the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Shaklee
began to explore another aspect of health ~ the power of the mind. His
experience had shown him that a positive mental attitude was a powerful
tool in health. He began to formulate the essential concepts of the personal
philosophy that eventually became known as “Thoughtsmanship.”
Then, during the summer of 1941, Ruth was struck
by a car as she crossed a street in downtown
Oakland. She was hospitalized for months and died
in December. With the country at war, Forrest, Jr.
enlisted in the army and Lee joined the navy. Dr.
Shaklee, though proud of his sons, was alone and
uncharacteristically unsure of what he wanted to
do.
Thinking a change would help him adjust to his life
without Ruth, he decided to retire.
San Francisco as it looked about when the Shaklees
arrived.
Dr. Shaklee & sons in
uniform
His childhood had taught him the healing powers
of nature, so he bought an isolated, 420-acre
ranch near Willows, about 150 miles north of San
Francisco.
It was a beautiful place with redwoods, oaks, and
madrone tress covering steep hillsides. Every
spring, the high meadows filled with lupine and
poppies and steelhead salmon swam in the
streams. He added ponds to attract wild ducks,
and built a rustic lodge and two guest cabins.
Gradually, the pain of loss subsided. He began to
explore his philosophical thoughts, sketching out
ideas for articles. Patients contacted him, looking
for advice, and, more often than not, hoping to get more of their Vitalized
Minerals. Dr. Shaklee realized that nature had done its work for him. It was
time to be with people again. In 1945, he sold the ranch and returned to
Oakland.
His Childhood had taught him the healing powers of nature
About Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee, Sr. Excerpts from The
Shaklee Story by
R. L. Shook
“My Dorothy”
Shortly after the company was founded;
Dr. Shaklee demonstrated his youthful
outlook in another way. He fell deeply in
love.
Friends had tried to introduce him to
one eligible woman after another. But
Dr. Shaklee let it be known that his had
been a happy marriage and that part of life was over for him. He was content to
concentrate on his sons and their families, his research and the exciting challenge
of his new business. His tailor was a particularly
persistent matchmaker, however, who insisted
that he meet Dorothy Potter.
Fifteen months later, Dr. Shaklee and the woman
he always called “My Dorothy” were married on
the moonlit shores of Lake Tahoe, proving that
romance was not the exclusive property of the
young.
Dr. Shaklee picked exactly the right partner for
his new life. Dorothy loved people as much as he
did. Her easy laughter, instinctive graciousness
and flawless memory for names and birthdays
made her enormously popular with Shaklee
distributors.
The happy working relationship the Shaklee’s
shared set the example for the thousands of
successful couples who have joined in the
Shaklee business over the years.
About Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee, Sr. Excerpts from The
Shaklee Story by
R. L. Shook
“What You Think, You Are”
This time he didn’t reopen his practice. The reflective time he’d spent surrounded
by the natural beauty he loved sent him in a new direction. Though he continued
to work as a chiropractor and nutritionist, it was the philosophy that he called
“Thoughtsmanship” that held his interest. His philosophy was based on the
responsibility of the individual to make life as rich and rewarding as it could be by
living in harmony with nature.
Dr. Shaklee’s sons, Lee and Forrest, Jr., commented that they’d been exposed to
Thoughtsmanship all their lives without realizing it.
It combined the Golden Rule ~ “Do unto
others as you would have them do unto
you” ~ with an insistence that thought could
improve man’s relationship wit nature. And the
wonder of it, they realized as adults, was that it
encouraged them to develop to full stature, but
in their own individual ways.
The purpose of his philosophy was to help
others become more positive, and therefore to
accomplish more. “I can only attempt to arouse
a consciousness in you that will permit you a
better understanding of your own ability to
solve your problems. Your future life will be
exactly what you decide to make. What you think, you look. What you think, you
do. What you think, you are.”
Dr. Shaklee’s ideas gained wide
popularity. He spoke frequently on his
views and in 1951 published four books:
Thoughtsmanship for Well Being,
Thoughtsmanship in Love and Marriage,
Thoughtsmanship for the Bride, and
Thoughtsmanship for the Salesman. His lectures were broadcast on Oakland and
San Francisco radio stations. As he frequently mentioned nutrition as one of the
ways to be in harmony with nature, interest in his food supplements grew, too.
The purpose of his philosophy was
to help others become more
positive.
In 1955, a big idea began to form. Now officially at the age of retirement, he
thought, “What about putting it all together in one grand adventure?” He called
his sons together for what they sensed was something serious. Their adult lives
had begun by then. Each was married, with a family.
Their careers were launched and
promising ~ Forrest, Jr. had his own
accounting firm and Lee was moving up
in an insurance company. But when
their dad outlined his proposal and then
asked, "Are you guys interested in
starting a business with me?“ They considered it seriously.
They became the first family whose lives changed dramatically with a Shaklee
business. The work of structuring the business took six months. Every aspect of
the business would be grounded in the philosophy. A person-to-person selling
system made sense to them for a number of reasons. It seemed the best way of
providing information and personal
service to each customer.
And it also meant that, if the
business became successful, others
could prosper from it with little
financial investment.
The Shaklee Products Company
gave Dr. Shaklee the opportunity to
use everything he had learned over
his lifetime. But what those three
men accomplished is astonishing.
They began with few assets except
their belief in each other and their
ability to influence others.
They started a nutritional products
company with a single product right
at the peak moment of America’s enchantment with Betty Crocker, Wonder bread
and other “miracles” of the postwar world of food science. Nearly every prospect
had to be educated before becoming a customer, let alone a distributor. The odds
didn’t look great, unless you banked on that unusual man at the helm.
They became the first family
whose lives changed dramatically
with a Shaklee business.
Dr. Shaklee & sons began Shaklee
Products Company
About Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee, Sr.
Excerpts from The Shaklee Story by R. L. Shook
The Enduring Dream… An American Original
There’s never been anyone like Forrest C.
Shaklee, Sr. He lived through most of the
twentieth century, always curious, always
eager to learn, always ahead of his time.
By the time he reached his sixties, he had
accomplished more than most people could fit
into several lifetimes. At the time he reached
the age when many people retire, he came up
with an idea for a business that seemed at
once radical and naive.
Dr. Shaklee’s goal was to change the world,
person by person. He would do this with
products that improved people’s health and
their harmony with nature. His
entrepreneurial business plan was based on a
conviction that helping others is the best way
to help oneself.
In time, his ideas gained
international recognition and
praise. His followers scattered the
seeds of his success so that today
millions reap the benefits of his
ideas.
Whenever Dr. Shaklee was asked
when his interest in health began,
he would answer that it began with
his birth. He was born in a coal
mining section of Iowa on a
gloomy November day in 1894.
The midwife told his parents that
their fragile baby had tuberculosis
and was not likely to survive. Doctors agreed. But his parents weren’t ones to
accept hard news without putting it to a test.
The Shaklee family at the turn of the
century
“My parents were determined to put an
end to the negative head shaking,” Dr.
Shaklee once wrote. “Their deep,
abiding faith in things natural led them
to move to a farm in the north of the
state, where the fertile soil produced the
quality of nutritional substances my body needed. Here I could enjoy the sunshine
and breathe pure air.”
The senior Shaklees put aside
medications that seemed to do
little for the child. All of the
family’s food came from the
farm garden. As soon as the
boy could stand, his father
began exercising with him to
strengthen the small arms and
legs. Forrest grew, alternating
long afternoons of bed rest with
games of catch, walks in the
woods and even fencing
lessons. And gradually, the
boy’s health improved.
By the time he was a teenager; Forrest was
reading Bernard McFadden’s Physical Culture and
working out with weights. When he reached
college, he was an athlete who played baseball,
ran track, wrestled, boxed and lifted weights.
“It was not a miraculous cure, as some people
said. It was slow, but it was sure,” Dr. Shaklee
said. At the earliest possible age, he was made to
understand that wellness has everything to do
with good nutrition, a healthy environment and
exercise.
Whenever Dr. Shaklee was asked when his interest in
health began, he would answer
that it began with his birth.
The family farm in Mooreland, Iowa
Forrest Shaklee in his 20s