Dr. John Bastyr

John Bartholomew Bastyr was born May 16, 1912, in New Prague, Minnesota. He was born at home to a family from a Bohemian (Czech) background. He was quite young when his family relocated to Fargo, North Dakota, where his early careers included that of farm hand and telegraph boy.[i]

In 1928 when Bastyr was a teenager, right before the Great Depression, the family moved to Seattle, Washington, driving a Pike's Peak Chandler automobile, and looking for greener pastures.

Dr. Bastyr's father had a pharmacy at 23rd and Madison.[ii] Young John tended the soda fountain there, after school and was the delivery boy as well. It was in this environment he was first exposed to both traditional medicine and botanical medicine.

Education

Bastyr attended Seattle College High School (now Seattle Prep) and graduated in 1929.

His mother was a herbalist and follower of Father Kneipp. She is known to have read Kneipp's books continually. She was also an avid gardener. After young John's appendectomy at the age of nine, his incision opened up (while he was climbing a tree). His mother "went out and got some plantain and put it on the wound."[iii]

She later fell ill with gall bladder disease, but avoided surgery when she sought the care of a sanipractic and chiropractor doctor, Harry F. Bonnelle. Dr. Bonnelle was teaching at Seattle College of Chiropractic, and it was he who encouraged Mrs. Bastyr to enroll her son in the college.

After high school, Bastyr went on to study at Seattle College of Chiropractic in Seattle. He graduated on June 26, 1931 and went on to a residency at Grace Hospital which he completed in 1934. He took the Chiropractic Board examination in 1932 and later, the Sanipractic Board examination in 1934.[iv]

Bastyr also attended the Northwest College of Chiropractic and was granted a degree on June 5, 1936. He also completed a degree in Surgery, Obstetrics and Internal Medicine, from the University of Guadalajara in June 1944.

Because of the politics between sanipractic and naturopathic licensure, Bastyr first licensure was sanipractic. On October 30, 1957, he was granted a Naturopathic Degree from Grace Hospital. The certificate is signed by C.P. Bryant, President; C.W. Bemis, Secretary; L.W. Squire VP; J D. Craven, Treas. (See Chapter 2.2 "Sanipractic vs. Naturopathic" for more information.)

Dates of Graduation and Certification [v]

Seattle College High School, (now Seattle Prep) - 1929

Seattle College of Chiropractic - June 26, 1931

Northwest College of Chiropractic - Seattle, June 5, 1936 (Signed by Dr. Rohrbacher)
Residency at Grace Hospital - 1934

University of Guadalajara. Degree in Surgery, Obstetrics, and Internal Medicine - June 28, 1944

During the time he was at the Seattle College of Chiropractic, he lived in the Wallingford district in Seattle, in the 3500 block of Burke Ave N.[vi]

Internship with C.P. Bryant

C. P. Bryant was the head of St Luke's Hospital, now Group Health, and he also ran a homeopathic hospital, Grace Hospital. It was the only "open door" hospital on the West Coast. Any doctor could bring patients there, and treat them as long as he practiced under his licensure. Bryant was the head of surgery there and he was a homeopath as well. Bastyr was the first intern there under Dr. Bryant.

Every weekend, Bryant taught homeopathy. Dr. Larkin of Bellingham also lectured there. The course lasted three years. Classes were held on the third floor of the hospital or in the Polish Hall up the street. Bryant lectured every Sunday for four hours.

Dr. Lippe introduced Bryant to homeopathy when Bryant was in Philadelphia and a student at Jefferson Medical School. Bryant's wife had a bad ankle injury and Lippe treated her with Bryonia. All the swelling went out and she was able to walk again. "That alerted Bryant to homeopathy. By the time he got out to Seattle, he was well into unorthodox treatments."[vii] Bryant studied homeopathy with Walter James. He also used physiotherapy and Abrams' Black Box.

In Bryant's homeopathic classes, he discussed individual remedies, and brought cases that he had shown good clinical results. He gave Bastyr books to read, including Farrington's Clinical Materia Medica. That copy, containing Bryant's notations, was later given to Bastyr and subsequently donated to the National College of Naturopathic Medicine library.

Dr. Bastyr's first case as an intern was a brain decompression. He aided Bryant as he drilled a hole in the patient's head with a hand drill.

Bryant had a group of sanipratics as interns. They were not required to do a residency, but were drawn because of the access to clinical experience.

Dr. Bryant taught them that "a real student always studies" a lesson Dr. Bastyr followed his whole life. Bryant set another example that Dr. Bastyr followed-- Bryant was constantly lobbying the state legislature. One of his causes was against the pasteurization of milk.

Bryant delivered many babies and that is where Dr. Bastyr began his obstetrical training.[viii]

Marriage

In 1937, John Bastyr met Aletha Persis LaRoude, an English professor at the University of Washington, while he was a student in her phonetics class. They eloped, keeping their marriage secret for a few months, in order to protect her teaching position. During that time, she kept her wedding ring in a specially made locket.

Together they moved to land in south Redondo Beach near Kent, which they developed into a 4-acre farm. When they first bought the land, they camped out, cutting down trees to build a home. They cleared the land, and put in an orchard and a large garden. The garden became a passion for them both. Their farm animals included chickens, ducks, geese, and many goats, from which Dr. Bastyr enjoyed his goat milk. Bastyr said his "wife was somewhat of a homeopathy, too."[ix] When their chickens came down with range paralysis, it was her prescription of Lathyrus sativa that saved them. Dr. Bastyr also did his own carpentry work on the house.[x]

Their hobbies included music and dance. Dr. Bastyr played the fiddle and belonged to the Ralston Male Choir and occasionally sang at weddings, directing his songs to his wife. Aletha played the piano and accompanied her husband's fiddle playing. The Bastyrs loved opera, attending Seattle Opera "faithfully."[xi] Dr. Bastyr treated many opera singers and was sometimes invited backstage at the Opera House. They were avid dancers, dancing until the last year of her life. The Bastyrs were married for over 52 years until her death in 1989 at the age of 95.

First clinic

Dr. Bastyr's first clinic was in an office downtown, for which he paid $16 a month. It had been the office of his physiology professor, Dr. Royce. Royce also had a clinic on First Hill and he used the downtown office once or twice a week. The office shared a common waiting room with a dentist.

His treatment room contained one adjusting table, which Bastyr had made himself out of an apple box. He attached padding and two armrests and four legs. For an adjustment, the patients would kneel on the floor with their chest on the box.[xii]

He practiced in Georgetown and later moved to 10th Avenue E, on Capitol Hill in Seattle. This is where he practiced until he was 81 years old. Much of that time, he drove daily from his 4-acre farm in Kent.

Practice

Dr. Bastyr treated over 50 thousand patients for five generations, over seven decades. [xiii] He treated some of his patients for over 55 years. "Bastyr became the prototype of the modern naturopathic doctor, who culls the latest findings from the scientific literatures, applies them in ways consistent with naturopathic principles, and verifies the results with appropriate lab studies."[xiv]

He believed in combining modalities, radiant therapy, manipulation, hydrotherapy, homeopathic remedies, botanicals, with a singular goal: " So you can be most effective…. Each one of us is different and has to be treated individually, whether you are treating them homeopathically or otherwise."[xv]

Bastyr delivered hundreds of babies, did underwater births decades ago. He made his own salves, and tinctures, incorporating the new techniques while never forgetting the old.

Even when faced with a very ill patient Dr. Bastyr never gave up. "Always try- sometimes a miracle will occur," he said. "You can't fool yourself if you are treating people…. I used the old beano. I have a fairly photographic memory. I retained a lot of finer points in prescribing."[xvi]

Educator

He was adept and thorough clinician who readily shared his knowledge.[xvii] -  Jim Ganzini

Dr. Bastyr was instrumental in creating naturopathic education, as we know it today. Bastyr and his peers carried the torch of alternative medicine for many years, when there were no students, and no new practitioners. They mortgaged their homes to buy a building in which to teach naturopathic medicine to the one or two students a year who would apply. Dr. Bastyr was both grandfather and father to students for the past 20 years, as there was no in-between generation to be our mentors.[xviii]

In 1954, Western States Chiropractic College in Portland had a two-year, post-graduate program in Naturopathic Medicine. However, in 1955, the National Chiropractic Association decided to accredit only those colleges that granted only chiropractic degrees, and the program at WSCC was discontinued.

National College of Naturopathic Medicine grew from the ashes, incorporated by Frank G. Spaulding, W. Martin Bleything, and Charles R. Stone on May 23, 1956. The school was located in Portland, Oregon, until 1959, when it moved to larger facilities in Seattle. Bastyr was involved in the school from its inception, and when it moved to Seattle, he became its Executive Director and professor of obstetrics and gynecology. During that same time, he was on the staff of the Thompson Maternity Hospital from 1940 to 1968.[xix] Bastyr served as president of the college until retiring in 1979 while retaining the title of President Emeritus until his death.[xx] Dr. Bastyr was devoted to NCNM. He continued his commitment to the college. When it moved to Portland, he traveled to teach classes there monthly, through the 1980s.

Dr. Bastyr lectured for hours with few notes. He recalled cases, dosages and treatments, and materia medica of homeopathy and botanicals from memory. Off the top of his head, he would readily quote modern research projects as well as lessons he has been taught himself as a student, decades prior.

For 23 years, he served the students of naturopathy, creating not just a path for all to follow, but a major highway. When Bastyr University was created in 1978, it was named for this illustrious educator.

Politics

Beginning in 1987, Bastyr served two terms on the Naturopathic Advisory Committee for the Washington State Department of Health.
He was an honorary member of the committee until his death.[i]

In the 1970s, he frequently lobbied the Washington State Legislature for the Naturopathic Bill. He enlisted students to drive from Seattle to Olympia with him to meet and encourage the representatives to sign the legislation.[ii]

Last years

Dr. Bastyr practiced until his last year of life, seeing up to 30 patients a day. He eventually lived upstairs from his clinic on 10th Ave. in Seattle's Capital Hill area. He was tended in his last days by his long time office assistant, Diane Wardrip. He passed away in Seattle, Washington, on June 29, 1995, at the age of 83.

A memorial for Dr. Bastyr was held at St. Mark's Cathedral in Seattle, a few blocks from his clinic. The memorial was attended by over 150 people, most of whom had not met him until he was already in his 60s, the age at which most people retire.

Bastyr had big dreams for the future of natural medicine. He dreamed of licensure for naturopaths. He dreamed of training for naturopathic nurse assistants. He dreamed of the creation of a naturopathic hospital. He dreamed of well-trained homeopaths. He dreamed of the science and art of natural medicine working together. When asked about the future of naturopathic medicine, he replied gently, "Keep on with the scientific research, but don't lose the philosophy."[iii]

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