By Pattie Stechschulte
With a simple flip of a coin, J. Clay Thompson changed chiropractic.
“As the story goes, he was thinking about going into business with a friend
or chiropractic school. He stood on a street corner and flipped a coin. It came
up chiropractic,” said Beth Zogg, D.C., granddaughter of the late Thompson.
Thompson entered Palmer School of Chiropractic at age 37 and graduated in 1949.
He became interested in chiropractic after he developed a severe case of diabetes
when he was 27.
After taking an engineering correspondence course, Thompson found a job as a
mechanical engineer for John Deere Harvester. He was injured one day when a
piece of timber hit the back of his head. Afterwards, he started to rapidly
develop diabetes and the doctors could do nothing.
“It got so bad that he started to bloat up, and the doctors told him to
go home to get his affairs in order because he was going to die,” said
Zogg. Luckily, Thompson’s father encouraged him to see James Delk, a chiropractor
who had helped him years earlier. After 16 days of continual adjustments, Thompson
was completely healed and never exhibited signs of diabetes again.
“At that time, he knew his life had been saved by chiropractic, but he
didn’t really understand the philosophy of it,” said Zogg. “Had
he understood the philosophy at that time, he would not have delayed his studies
at Palmer.”
As like all chiropractic students, Thompson practiced his adjusting. “He
noticed that when he delivered the adjustment, he could feel his body being
pushed away from the patient. Having an interest in mechanics, he knew there
must be a better way. He really started to think that they really need to make
some improvements on the table,” said Zogg.
As a small man never weighing over 135 pounds, Thompson knew there was a way
to deliver an adjustment with less force. From there, he developed a drop-head
piece and started getting positive results after regularly adjusting patients
at the Clearview Sanitarium in Davenport. Soon, B.J. Palmer heard about his
research and made arrangements for a demonstration.
“B.J. had a passion for invention, he was intrigued by everything. He
told my grandfather that this headpiece was going to revolutionize chiropractic.
Since my grandfather didn’t have the funding to develop the headpiece,
they developed an agreement that it would be called the Palmer Thompson adjustment
headpiece and they started conducting research at the college,” said Zogg.
Within a few years, Thompson was granted a process patent in 1955; then the
first table was sold in 1957. His research continued with the development of
the Thompson Terminal Point Technique and leg check analysis. Most of the tables
are still in use at Palmer, only being reupholstered from use over the years.
Described as a “nutty professor” type, Thompson was always thinking
about how to improve on things.
“He was a gadget guy and was always interested in something new or better,”
said Rob Jackson, D.C., from Back Talk Systems, who cites Thompson as his mentor.
“He was never satisfied with his own inventions and technique and he was
always open to the ways and means of others to make things better. I sat in
many hotel rooms at night when he would be sharing ideas with other great technique
leaders to compare and bring new ideas to light—Major Dejarnet, Arlan
Fuhr, Russ Erhardt, Jim Cox.”
Thompson is remembered as a high-energy, humble teacher who believed in chiropractic.
“He wasn’t the technique developer that would say that my way is
the only way in every case,” said Zogg. “He really believed in all
techniques.”
“His dedication to the profession was manifested by the number of programs
he taught all over the world and at every chiropractic college in the world.
He even gave his process patent on the drop technique back to chiropractic,
instead of keeping it for himself,” said Jackson. “That one thing
separates him from every other chiropractic inventor and developer in the profession
that I am aware of. It was about chiropractic and not about him.”
J. Clay
Thompson, D.C.
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