Special Recognition
The Measure of a Man: Dr. Richard Yennie
By Linda A. Frisch
How does one go about measuring a successful man? Is he successful because he is a great son, husband, father, friend, doctor, mentor, or pioneer? Is he great because he is a man of integrity, a man with character likened to that of many of our great founding fathers? Is he great because he has influenced his profession above and beyond the call of duty? Or is he great because he has given of himself unselfishly decade after decade after decade? If this defines success, then it can be summed up in one very unique individual, Richard Yennie, DC, DABCA, Dipl. Ac (NCCAOM).
All too often tributes are written of men and women long after they have left their mark on society. Dr. Yennie is more passionate at the young age of 83 than most doctors at age 38. His life continues to be devoted to raising the bar for the chiropractic profession, with chiropractic acupuncture as his mantra.
Much has been written about this great man yet many of our younger chiropractic professionals have no knowledge of the impact Dr. Yennie has made to pave the way for their success as a practitioner, much less of his humble beginnings.
Born March 26, 1928 in Kansas City, MO, Yennie became fascinated with Japanese calligraphy, martial arts and the mystery of the orient characterized in the Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto movies at the tender age of nine. This became the compass of his life. A burning passion was ignited that continues to blaze 73 years later.
Wanting to learn Japanese, his quest began by finding Dr. Kenkichi Furuichi, a Japanese dentist in Kansas City, KS, who agreed to teach Yennie his native language. Yennie also began taking judo lessons from Ken Lane, a Kansas City, MO detective. By age 10, Yennie wrote a letter to J. Edgar Hoover to inform him that he was ready to send for his G-Man application. Humored, Mr. Hoover wrote back suggesting Yennie contact him when he got older and encouraged him to continue with his foreign language studies.
Passionate as ever, by the age of 19 and fluent in Japanese, he entered the Military Intelligence Service Language School, Japanese Division located in the Presidio of Monterey, CA to learn military and political terminology. He was placed with a group of Kibei (Japanese born in the U.S. but educated in Japan) based on his extremely high entrance exam scores in a six month course. He was the only Caucasian in his graduating class. One of his fondest memories is sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge out into the Pacific toward the Orient. His first sight was Mount Fuji, in the wee hours of the morning, when the dew and clouds cleared. His only thought was, “Let the adventure begin.” His life continues to be one filled with adventure.
His first assignment was a translator and interpreter in the Far East Tribunal War Crimes for the British and U.S. prosecutors at Sugamo prison where Tojo and other war criminals were confined after World War II. This was followed by joining the U.S. Counter Intelligence Corps as special agent in the activities of the Japan Communist party.
Off duty, he enrolled in the Kodokan, judo’s official world headquarters in Tokyo and devoted his spare time to the study and training of judo and karate, receiving his black belt.
His plans to return home to study and practice law took an abrupt U-turn when he suffered a major low back injury with right leg numbness, along with a wrist injury, during a
judo tournament. He landed in the Yokosuka Naval Military Hospital for weeks on end. The top military doctors, utilizing the best American medicine available, could do nothing to relieve the pain, much less heal the injury. Yennie’s judo instructor eventually brought his personal acupuncturist to see Yennie (smuggling in his acupuncture needles because MacArthur had banned acupuncture and shiatsu – shiatsu was a profession largely practiced by blind people, who appealed to Helen Keller, who wrote President Truman, who rescinded his general’s order.)
The acupuncturist started with his pulse diagnosis, looked at his tongue then proceeded with pulling acupuncture needles from a stainless container he carried in the sleeve pocket of his kimono and said, “Chiryo shimasho” – meaning let’s treat. He began inserting needles behind Yennie’s knees, at his ankles and in his ears. Thinking, “What kind of hocus-pocus is this?” Yennie said, “What are you doing? The pain is in my low back and wrists!” The acupuncturist laughed and said, “Wait for results.” Before long, Yennie had a feeling of warmth traveling down his right leg. The acupuncturist told him, “That’s the healing life force, qi and we’re controlling it through these acupuncture points.” Yennie asked how many acupuncture points there were in the human body and the response was, “Four hundred: 361 major points plus another 40.” “How many conditions can be treated with acupuncture?” He answered, “Around 2000.” The acupuncturist returned the next day and repeated the same treatment. To Yennie’s amazement, he walked out of the hospital a few days later and immediately returned to judo and karate. (Dr. Yennie is as well known and famous to the judo/karate movement in our country as he is to acupuncture.) He thought, “These Orientals know something about healing that apparently the Western world does not.” Before leaving the hospital he noticed the letters G.O.K. written on his file. Asking the officer who dismissed him what the letters stood for, his response, “God only knows.” As far as the physicians knew at the military hospital, Yennie was admitted, treated and unresponsive to treatment, yet he walked out of the hospital completely pain and injury free. Only Yennie, his judo instructor, the acupuncturist and the Yellow Emperor knew that acupuncture was the sole reason he healed.
From that moment forward, Yennie pinpointed exactly what he wanted to do with the rest of his life and so he has. He received his first acupuncture training at Waseda College of Acupuncture in Tokyo and returned to the states focused on receiving a professional degree that would allow him to incorporate acupuncture to heal others. He searched for acupuncture schools in the states and found nothing. Finding a practitioner back in those days required entering the world of Mr. Moto again and scurrying through the back allies of L.A.’s Chinatown, San Francisco or New York. Noticing the similarity between the adjusting techniques of tui’na that he learned in Tokyo and chiropractic adjusting techniques, Yennie entered and later graduated from Cleveland Chiropractic College, Kansas City, MO in 1953. Known as the class troublemaker throughout his chiropractic training, he couldn’t help himself when the instructor taught that a specific technique would correct lower back pain. His hand shot up and he would spout off, “In oriental medicine, you put a needle in the back of the knee to relieve back pain.” One instructor fired back, “Yennie, what are you? Chinese or Japanese?” His quick reply, “No, I’m Scotch-Irish.” What became a fascination for a nine year old boy has remained a life-long passion.
Dr. Yennie was the first chiropractor to combine chiropractic and acupuncture with his patients. He was also the first non-Asian to utilize acupuncture in this country.
He went on to attend the Tai Chung Medical School in Taipei, Taiwan for additional advanced acupuncture studies. He did his preceptorship at the Kyoto Pain Control Institute, under Kunzo Nagayama, MD. He continued his acupuncture study and research making frequent trips to Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong and China.
He has served on the faculty of Waseda Acupuncture College in Tokyo, Dean of Academic Affairs at Kansas College of Chinese Medicine in Wichita, KS, and chairman of the Hope Institute of Chinese Medicine in Beijing, China. He was the first non-Chinese and Deputy Director serving on the Board of Directors of the China Medical Association Acupuncture Research Committee in Taipei, Taiwan. Columbia Institute of Chiropractic, now known as New York College of Chiropractic was the first school to offer him faculty standing. The president of the school in 1973 called saying, “Yennie, our students keep talking about these wonderful results they get when they combine chiropractic with acupuncture. How would you like to have our school co-sponsor you in an acupuncture training program.”
While it is common for some doctors to covet their unique treatment techniques, Dr. Yennie has always been willing to teach any practitioner (DC, DO, MD, DVM, DDS, etc.) who wanted to learn acupuncture. His philosophy has always been to raise the bar and level of competency, especially in his beloved chiropractic profession. Beginning his own acupuncture teaching career in 1968, he founded the Acupuncture Society of America (ASA). The ASA’s purpose was and continues to be: raising up our country’s highest trained physicians through post-graduate acupuncture certification courses. Yennie has brought many of the greatest acupuncturists from China; Japan; Korea; Taiwan; Hong Kong and England, exposing his students to the best of the best. Earlier in his career, he led tours to China and Japan where his students combined sightseeing with observing acupuncture being practiced first hand in the lands of its origin. He continues to lead trips to China visiting hospitals and clinics combined with sightseeing and visiting his Qi gong Master Wan Suijan who travels with them. More than ever, Yennie’s acupuncture classes continue to pack in doctors wanting to learn from the master himself.
When Yennie began practicing acupuncture along side chiropractic manipulation, acupuncture was considered extra-legal….neither against the law, nor in the law. As the practice of acupuncture began to grow and be used in practices across the country, boards of healing arts investigated “controlling” it. Yennie has devoted himself to working within the states political arenas from the beginning testifying at hearings to fight for acupuncture being incorporated under their chiropractic scope of practice. Today only 12 states remain opposed to chiropractors utilizing acupuncture in their specific scope of practice. He was also an expert witness in the state of Nevada, the first state to pass acupuncture into law.
Dr. Yennie is also credited with introducing acupuncture to the veterinary profession. Dr. Marvin Cain, practicing vet specializing in acupuncture for race horses for over 35 years says, “All of the human and animal thank you’s for acupuncture being in America belong to Richard Yennie alone!”
When asked in a previous interview, “How much do the underlying worldviews or philosophies of chiropractic and acupuncture overlap?”
Yennie eloquently responded, “When chiropractors speak of innate intelligence, we’re really talking about qi. When we say universal intelligence, we’re saying taiji. The philosophy of both is based on natural principles, that there is a healing power of the body that now and again needs a little assistance, to relive pain and promote healing. There is a two-way flow between the skin and the internal organs, a flow of intelligence and healing, a flow that goes from an organ such as the heart, to the skin. If there’s pain anywhere along the heart channel, it’s diagnostic, indicating that something is wrong. At the same time, there is also a flow that goes from the nine points of the heart meridian on the skin back to the organ itself. These points are therapeutic.
‘When you stimulate the right acupuncture points, you not only relieve pain, you arrest the progression of disease and even reverse it so the patient comes back to normal functioning. In China, this is the definition of health – all part of the body functioning normally. That’s the same objective we have in chiropractic, relieving the pressure on the nerve. A chiropractic problem sooner or later will lead to an acupuncture problem, a meridian imbalance. Conversely, a meridian imbalance will create a reflex subluxation. Not all subluxations are primary, many are reflexes. Right there is the nexus between the two in terms of healing objectives.’
‘We are taught acupuncture is practiced on three levels. The first is “pain control.” It is simple enough a 12 year old can learn to do it. The second level is “cookbook” recipes, by formula. The Chinese oftentimes are critical of this method saying when you go by a formula only, you’ll get results six out of ten cases. They believe two or three more could have been helped but won’t be when you rely on formula treatment only.’
‘I believe there is great value in both methods, and I also believe a third approach can even be more beneficial, the classical level. It should be determined with every patient. You palpate the pulse (or analyze by machine) and find which meridians are too high and which are too low. You proceed to sedate the high meridians and tonify the low meridians to balance the energy flow within the body.’
‘Most chiropractic acupuncture trained physicians use a combination of all three valuable methods of treatment for maximum results.”
Yennie’s role as a healer and a teacher gained the admiration of Edwin Purcell, PhD, a medical educator with experience in all anatomical sciences, multiple teaching methodologies, course development and coordination. His areas of research include stress-induced immune suppression, manipulative therapy, biofeedback, affect and autonomic function and he has additional background in CAM including acupuncture and mind-body medicine. He specializes in course and program development, innovative use of anatomical specimens, clinically oriented instruction, and seminars on holistic body function.
Purcell boldly stated, “If Yennie had an MD behind his name instead of DC, he would be commonly hailed as one of the most important influences in western medicine. No person has done more in this country to make the important treatment modality of acupuncture available to patients.”
From his days as a chiropractic student and through half a century, Yennie has been directly responsible for teaching over 50,000 students acupuncture. He’s formed acupuncture societies, been president of societies, on the faculty at American chiropractic and oriental medicine schools as well as institutes in Japan and China.
He has a room dedicated in his name at Cleveland Chiropractic College for referring more students than any other individual.
He was the first president for the Council of Chiropractic Acupuncture (CCA), a specialty group under the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) overseeing the development of the
Diplomate of the American Board of Chiropractic Acupuncture (DABCA), the highest recognition in chiropractic acupuncture in the United States today.
The CCA and ABCA’s sole objective is to standardize chiropractic acupuncture education so any doctor of chiropractic can and will receive the same core instruction to insure educational competency and public safety.
The Council of Chiropractic Acupuncture (CCA) is dedicated to providing excellent educational opportunities to elevate the quality of care, life, and practice for the members and prospective members of this council. The CCA will also provide a platform for excellence in intra-professional and inter-professional communication regarding the practice of acupuncture in the chiropractic profession.
The American Board of Chiropractic Acupuncture (ABCA) is dedicated to promoting excellence in the chiropractic profession by providing national testing for Diplomate status in the field of chiropractic acupuncture. Its mission is to credential knowledgeable and effective chiropractic practitioners in the art, science, and philosophy of chiropractic acupuncture within nationally recognized standards.
Together the two groups stand believing and promoting chiropractic acupuncture as the art, science and philosophy of treating disease and injury by stimulating specific energy modulating points on the skin and is an approved specialty within the chiropractic profession. Methods of stimulation include, but are not limited to: needle insertion, electrical stimulation, light, heat and pressure. Chiropractic acupuncture treats a wide variety of health conditions which includes all systems and tissues of the body and focuses special attention to the relationship between the spine, nervous system and the meridian system. Chiropractic acupuncture is inclusive of all diagnostic and therapeutic principles and procedures taught in acupuncture programs sponsored by CCE accredited colleges, chiropractic state associations and post-graduate certified instructors.
As dedicated as he has been to acupuncture throughout Dr. Yennie’s life, he also found time to take up piano lessons six decades after his early introduction as a boy and continues to play jazz and blues for enjoyment.
Forever the self-studier, he is conversationally proficient in Chinese and Spanish, along with continuing as a master in reading, writing and speaking Japanese.
Not only does he continue to teach his own acupuncture courses through the ASA in Kansas City, MO, he also teaches at Parker Chiropractic College in their 300 hour post-grad acupuncture series.
While many begin their countdown years before retiring from their professions, such a thought never enters Dr. Yennie’s mind. He is as passionate today to help patients heal as he was the first day he started private practice.
In between the time he spends teaching postgraduate acupuncture courses, he continues and enjoys treating his patients.
Though Dr. Yennie cherished his mother and adores his daughter, one of the most influential women in his life has been and continues to be Ms. Patricia Khan, or Patsy as he so affectionately calls her. While it is said, “Behind every successful man is a hard working woman!!!” nothing could be spoken with more truth than this statement.
Ms. Khan began working part-time for Dr. Yennie in 1961 and has devoted the past 50 years of her life to the success of one doctor’s vision….to see acupuncture soar as a healing art in our country. Where you see one, you’ll see the other. They have leaned on each other as they forged through life, making a larger than life impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands. The most eloquent words could never describe the devotion they have for one another.
It was 1982 when my husband, Dr. Todd Frisch, current CCA President, sat quietly as a young doctor listening to Dr. Yennie share his vast knowledge of truth as Todd considered incorporating acupuncture as an adjunct therapy in his own practice. Dr. Yennie asked, “How many seeds in an apple?” Todd’s analytical thinking began dissecting the apple in his mind. Was it 5, 6…maybe only 4 seeds and maybe more. Did it depend on the type or size of apple? As the class sat pondering, Dr. Yennie proceeded to ask, “How many apples in a seed?”
Instantly Todd’s mind experienced exponential thinking. Immediately he understood the wise message being imparted. “We, who sat before this great sage, were his seeds. It was up to us to apply the seeds of wisdom being imparted in our own orchards of life.”
While we can credit Dr. Yennie for teaching hundreds of thousands, we have no idea of the millions of lives that have been changed because of this one man’s desire to make a difference in the health care of our society with Far Eastern “Energetical Healing”.
In Dr. Yennie’s 60 years of being passionate about chiropractic and acupuncture and their ability to bring about natural healing, he is proud of his colleagues who follow his lead by teaching acupuncture as an adjunctive procedure to chiropractic, and who will continue to strengthen and advance this powerful and effective healing art for future generations.
Once again, I ask you, “What is the measure of a successful man?” I submit to you it is the legacy of a dedicated man to a cause greater than himself. It is a man who continues to remain humble, whose heart is grateful for the long life God has blessed him to have and enjoy.
A Beautiful Truth
By Steve Kroschel
Addendums dedicated to Dr. Richard Yennie
By Linda A. Frisch
For each of us eventually, whether we’re ready or not, some day it will come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you’ve collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame, and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.
So too your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and loses that once seemed so important, will fade away.
It won’t matter if you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
So what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built.
He built an empire of acupuncturists!
Not what you got, but what you gave.
He gave his entire life to a cause greater than himself!
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
His significance is unmatched.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
He continues to be our master teacher!
What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
His character is unsurpassed.
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.
His friendships span the world and he will never be forgotten.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.
He is a man of tremendous integrity, selfless compassion, audacious courage, unparalleled sacrifice, and is a champion who continues to empower and encourage all of us to carry his torch.
What will matter is not your memories,
but the memories that live in those who love you….
Thousands upon thousands hold cherished memories in their hearts.
A life lived that matters, is not of circumstance but of choice!!!
He chose !!!