Your Extraordinary LIFE 2018 Volume 11 | Page 50

F E A T U R E D C O M PA N Y D O N O R Foot Levelers and Kent S. Greenawalt, Chairman and CEO An Unusual Blood Type Called “Chiropractic” When speaking with Kent S. Greenawalt, Chairman and CEO of Foot Levelers, Inc., you sense a deep dedication to Chiropractic. Mr. Greenawalt and Foot Levelers have been extraordinarily generous to Life University. One such example is their 2012 donation to help renovate the William M. Harris Center for Clinical Education’s Campus Center for Health and Optimum Performance (CC-HOP), where Doctor of Chiropractic students begin their clinic experience and start to hone their skills under faculty supervision. One might ask why a business would support Life University, and specifically LIFE’s chiropractic education, to such an extent. To understand why, we look to the story of Greenawalt’s father, Dr. Monte H. Greenawalt. In 1942, World War II was in full force, and Monte felt the urge, as many young men did, to come to the aid of his country by enlisting in the military. As part of the preparation for his service, he received a vaccination, but the batch that was used was tainted and left many dead and Monte paralyzed. He was forced to lie in an iron lung for six months. “Monte will have to live the rest of his life as a paraplegic,” the doctors told his devastated family. However, a chiropractor soon changed his life and, eventually, his career. “They carried him in, and he walked out,” his mother would recall. After his amazing recovery, Monte decided to devote his life to Chiropractic, and in 1948, he earned his degree from Lincoln Chiropractic College. As a young doctor, Dr. Monte began to see that his adjustments were not holding in his patients with foot problems. He noted that they were returning with the same subluxations. He tried referring them to a podiatrist and still saw their subluxations continue. So he began experimenting, and the first Spinal Pelvic Stabilizer (orthotic) was born. In 1952, Foot Levelers, Inc. was founded. In the decades since, Foot Levelers has remained a strong supporter of the profession that made them possible, and they remain active philanthropically by supporting chiropractic research, education and causes. Kent S. Greenawalt However, the public’s dedication to Chiropractic, while it has improved immensely, has not reached the level which Greenawalt, and Life University, would like. To address this discrepancy, Greenawalt gives generously to chiropractic schools and also set up a foundation, the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress, that aids in spreading the positive message of Chiropractic. He explains the foundation’s origins, “We started out in Dubuque, Iowa, a little river town along the Mississippi River. My mother 48 Alumni.LIFE.edu | 2018