Chiropractic pioneer, technique developer, author, pilot, military hero and inventor, Donald B. Mears Jr., D.C., died on January 5th 2001 at his home in Enfield Connecticut.

Son of Donald B. Mears Sr., D.C., who developed the upper cervical technique known as the Mears Technique, Dr. Mears helped his father write and publish a book on the Mears method and taught the technique to doctors and students from around the world.

His teaching duties twice took him to Vladivostok, Russia, where he spent three months living and working in this region of Far Eastern Russia after becoming involved with the International Spinal Health Institute (ISHI).

After reading an article about a chiropractic project in Russia, Mears called Dr. Harold McCoy and asked if the Russian program included "chiropractic" or just non-specific manipulation.

He talked at length with those involved and later traveled to Russia to visit with Dr. Matthew McCoy, who had set up a clinic there. He was so impressed with the work that he spent three months there.

According to Dr. Matthew McCoy, "Don and I had about a three week overlap before I left and he lived with me during that time. I will never forget it as long as I live. Those three weeks changed my life forever. He told me stories about his father, about B.J. Palmer, the work in the sanitariums etc. He also constantly talked about his love for his wife and how she supported him through his battles in chiropractic and how he owed everything to her."

Mears at times became impatient with the chiropractic profession and its slide away from specificity in the correction of the subluxation. He began to feel that both his and his father's work would be lost, but this changed for him when he became involved in the Russia project. The Russian doctors embraced him and his technique, became serious students of the method and continue using it to this day.

"I remember the look on his face and the tears in his eyes when he got off the plane in Russia and I handed him a Russian translation of his father's book. He said he felt that his father would be very happy and that he had completed some of his father's mission," said Dr. Matt McCoy.

Mears served as an Advisor to the International Spinal Health Institute and soon joined the Board of Directors. Through ISHI, he helped support the first Russian citizen from the Russian Far East, Olga Volkova, to go to Sherman College and study chiropractic.

His work in Russia and the enthusiasm he saw for it inspired him to begin presenting the Mears Technique at research conferences including the Upper Cervical Conference at Life University and Sherman College's Annual Research Conference.

In addition to being a chiropractor, Mears served in the Navy during the Korean War and was an avid glider pilot. He also invented and patented a non-exploding gas tank, a tuning device for car radios, a navigational instrument, a grenade launcher for Colt, a de-cocking mechanism for Smith & Wesson and a handgun.

These skills were also shared by his father who had invented and patented the Mono-neurometer, a single-probed galvanic device, and a mirrored posture analysis device called a Bilateralscope used to view the right and left sides of the head simultaneously.

The Mears Technique relies on precisely taken radiographs of the cervical spine but they also used a number of other analytical methods to determine the outcome of care including blood work, basal metabolism, audiometry, EKG's, bilateral weight scales, skin temperature and posture. The Mears had collected data on the relationship between cervical problems and mental health at the chiropractic sanitariums.