by: Randy Southerland

Although her chiropractic lineage stretches back over four generations, Brantford, Ontario’s Dr. Stacey Cooper-Latimer credits steaming mugs of hot chocolate served up from behind the counter of the local Tim Horton’s with getting her into the profession.

"Dad would take me on Saturday mornings and we would stop at Tim Horton’s, and I’d have a hot chocolate," she recalled. "Then, we’d come into the office. So he got me into the office by going to Horton’s first. When I was a young girl of about 12, I started coming into the office, where I did the reception work, greeting the patients, taking them into the adjusting room, filing charts, cutting face paper. I did all the front desk kind of stuff, like straightening and whatever needed to be done."

Her part-time job also gave her a chance to see and hear firsthand how much patients benefited from the care they received at the hands of her father, Dr. Barry Cooper. Just as he had learned from his father, Dr. Leslie Cooper, and his grandfather – the patriarch of the clan, Dr. William H. Cooper.

"I’ve seen the effects of the adjustment," asserted Dr. Stacey. "Some of the patients were in dire straits when they came in. They couldn’t even make it to the adjusting rooms themselves, but by the time Dad did his work, they were walking out under their own power.

"That’s what struck me the most. I saw what a dramatic change could occur in such a short time – that day with that one adjustment. That’s what got me so intrigued with the whole idea of becoming a chiropractor. I could help people without medicating them. People seemed to be so much more satisfied with the care that they received, because it really got to the cause of the problem."

A 1996 graduate of Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, she is carrying on a tradition that began with her great grandfather in 1912. In the intervening 88 years, the family has served generations of patients.

"We have patients who have been in our office for generations," remarked the father, Dr. Barry, who still practices with his daughter. "We’ve got a number of patients who saw my father, saw my grandfather, saw me and are seeing Stacey. They come in on a regular basis because they know they feel much better after the adjustment, in an overall wellness sense."

The Cooper family has built this loyalty by hewing closely to a brand of chiropractic that recognizes the adjustment is more than simply for "low back, cricks in the neck and headaches," he observed.

Dr. Stacey noted that she grew up living the "chiropractic lifestyle" of being adjusted at home and allowing the body to heal itself.

"We didn’t have aspirins at home, and we didn’t run to the doctor for everything else," she said. "We weren’t vaccinated in public school. So, the only difference I had in the public school was, when they were all ushered down the hall to get their vaccine, I was left in the classroom. Meanwhile, I didn’t miss any sick days from school. Half the class would be out with the cold or flu that was going around, and I’d still be there. That ticked me off as a young child."

Carrying On The Tradition

Although her father Dr. Barry never pressured her to enter the profession, when it came time to choose a field of work, chiropractic was the natural answer. She wanted very much to be a part of this natural healing profession that brought relief and renewed health to so many people.

That lack of pressuring children to follow in their parent’s footsteps is also a Cooper family tradition.

"My father never demanded or suggested that (chiropractic) be the vocation that I should follow," recalled Dr. Barry. "He was very laid back and basically said, ‘You make your own decisions. You know how hard I work and if you want to work that hard to obtain your goals, then go for it. If you don’t, then find something else’."

There was no other choice. He recalls telling his sixth-grade teacher that he intended to become a chiropractor when he grew up.

This long tradition got its start in 1910, when a Canadian pharmacist named William Herbert Cooper decided to embark on a career in the new, emerging profession of chiropractic. He crossed the border to Detroit and entered the International College of Chiropractic Spondylotherapy.

After completing the 18-month course, Dr. William returned to the small farming community of Brantford and set up practice in a house on the corner of two streets. Like most D.C., he chose to combine home and office because there simply wasn’t money available to acquire two locations.

Over the coming decades, the practice would occupy three more locations – all within the city of Brantford.

How The Practice Changed

In those early years, it was a very different form of practice than today. The first Dr. Cooper worked without an appointment book and accepted walk-in patients.

"It wasn’t unusual for him to be unoccupied during the day while the sun was shining, and the farmers were out plowing their fields, then working until midnight when they would all come in to get their adjustments," said Dr. Barry.

He also recalled other stories of those early years. During the summer months, his grandfather would strap a handmade portable adjusting table to his Model T and drive through the verdant countryside to the widely scattered homes of his patients. There, he would unload the table and proceed to adjust them in their living rooms after they came back from a long day of working sunup to sundown.

His pay was usually in the form of chickens, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbages or whatever else the farmer had available. Sometimes, he had to wait until the crops were gathered before he could collect his fees.

For many of these rural farm families, Dr. William was their only contact with a health-care practitioner. Working only with his hands, he got results that were astonishing, even to his chiropractic descendants.

Some of the stories I got from my grandfather and some of the things that he did are just phenomenal," said Dr. Barry. "I look at it and listen to these people and say, ‘My God, I would never try to do that.’ It’s the same thing with my dad. I can remember having one patient now who swears that if it wasn’t for my father looking after her son that he would be in a mental institution. He was on the verge of a nervous breakdown in high school, and she brought him to my dad. He adjusted him. He now has a Ph.D., and he’s dean of a college out west."

He recalled that his dad caring for a patient who had severe leg ulcers.

"(The patient’s) muscle, from the back of the knee right down to the ankle, was literally eaten away, just like an alligator would take a hunk out of it," he said. "It was all open sore. My dad looked after him for a year, and it finally healed up."

While Dr. Barry Cooper says he would be reluctant to try the same thing today, he believes his father had the knowledge – much of it gained from his own father – to adjust the body so that it could heal itself.

That ability continues to draw patients, some of them coming from more than 100 miles away, to the doors of the present Charing Cross Street clinic.

"I have patients who come to my office simply because they can’t find anybody in their area who can adjust them the way they want to be adjusted," said Dr. Barry.

Dr. William eventually welcomed his son, Dr. Leslie, into the practice in 1949. He was in the inaugural class at Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College and opened the family’s first satellite clinic in a nearby community.

Dr. Barry came along in 1969 and then the latest member of the chiropractic family, Dr. Stacey, came into the practice in 1996.

With each succeeding generation, the Coopers have carried on the tradition of chiropractic. Each, in turn, has developed a great love of the profession and of the place they call home, and the people who have entrusted their health to them for much of this century.

About the author: Randy Southerland is a public relations specialist at Life University. Inquiries may be addressed to him at 1425 Franklin Rd., Marietta, GA 30067; or E-mail rsouther@life.edu.

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