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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