November 2008

Legendary LACC professor dies

John Gordon Anderson, 92, author, international lecturer and professor emeritus, dean and chief executive officer of Los Angeles College of Chiropractic, died in Northridge, Calif. on September 21st, following a short hospitalization.

His professional service to chiropractic spanned more than 40 years and he helped educate thousands of doctors of chiropractic in 50 countries on four continents. Dr. Anderson served as dean of Pasadena College of Chiropractic and professor at the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic in Bournemouth, England. In addition, he was a sought after speaker in the US, Europe, and Japan.

Known for his dry wit and bull dog demand for academic excellence, "JG" was solicited while already in his 80's by South African chiropractic organizers and offered the presidency of their newly planned chiropractic university.

Even before making it to the top echelons of chiropractic academia, Anderson led an interesting life.

The obituary published in the Los Angeles Times recounted how, during high school in Onida, South Dakota he had a part-time job where his duties included firing up the courthouse furnace to burn the gopher tails that were turned in for a five-cent bounty.

In the late 1930's, grasshoppers and the Great Depression finally drove him to hop freight trains and join the rest of his family that had previously relocated to South Gate, California.

Anderson interrupted his chiropractic education in 1942 to join the Navy and serve as a Pharmacist's Mate at the San Diego Naval Hospital and on board the USS Ruticulus in the South Pacific.

After the war, he returned to LACC, earned his chiropractic doctorate and immediately joined the school's faculty, where he taught and wrote the textbooks for neurology, histology, pathology and manipulative technique. He spent hours making legendary colored chalk blackboard drawings of the nervous system.

Anderson met Sophie, his wife of 47 years, while she was a student at LACC. He is survived by his three children John, Mary and Jim as well as four grandchildren.