Chiropr Hist. 1999 Jun; 19(1): 75-95.

C. Sterling Cooley, D.C., F.I.C.C.: politician, innate fundamentalist and Palmer historian.

Keating JC, Foderaro F.

Los Angeles College of Chiropractic, Whittier, CA.

From the day he graduated from the Palmer-Gregory Chiropractic College in 1908 until his death in 1965, C. Sterling Cooley considered himself a student of D.D. Palmer. Friend to three generations of the Palmers, he nonetheless found his own path through the stormy politics of his era. Appointed to the first Board of Chiropractic Examiners in Oklahoma in 1921, he served for many years as president and secretary and, later, as a member of the state's basic science board. Cooley helped establish the International Chiropractic Congress in 1928 and was elected the third president of the broad-scope National Chiropractic Association (NCA) in 1935. The first serious steps in the NCA's educational reform efforts took place during his term on the society's executive board (1936-41). Concerned that both the NCA and the International Chiropractor's Association were ignoring the principles of chiropractic as set forth by Old Dad Chiro, Cooley devoted his final two decades to studying, speaking and writing about the life and teachings of the founder. His career epitomizes that segment of the profession which held that authority in defining and practicing chiropractic must derive from the principles of the "Old Master."