Chapter 3, Part 6 – The Budden Legacy

The Budden Legacy

Dr. Budden was a leader, a pioneer and an innovator for the chiropractic profession and Western States College. By his side through it all, as a partner at Pacific Chiropractic College, one of the founding members of the Health Research Foundation, and as the college’s registrar, was his wife and best friend, Kathryn.

For his entire chiropractic career, Dr. Budden was an active, visible, and outspoken advocate for the chiropractic profession. His agenda was to unite the chiropractic colleges through a common foundation for teaching the philosophy, art and science of chiropractic. He wrote and spoke prolifically and passionately in support of chiropractic education reform. Between 1935 and 1954, Dr. Budden contributed dozens of articles to The Bulletin, the journal of the Oregon Association of Chiropractic Physicians and well over 100 articles to The Chiropractic Journal, the NCA’s journal. Dr. Budden was also an active participant in and enthusiastic advocate for the NCA’s Council on Public Health.

Dr. Budden was unwavering in his advocacy of principles he considered fundamental to the core of chiropractic practice and imperative for the advancement of the profession:

  • He supported the scientific method and advancement of the chiropractic profession along scientific lines.
  • He championed passage of the basic science examination as a requirement for licensure, but argued vehemently that the process should not be dominated or controlled by the medical profession.
  • He wrote and spoke extensively in favor of a process for accrediting chiropractic colleges. He contended accreditation recognized by the U.S. Department of Education would enhance the profession’s standing and serve to strengthen it.
  • He supported the theory of a neurologic basis for the etiology of disease and the manipulative and physiological management thereof.
  • He was an outspoken critic of antibiotics and cautioned his readers, listeners and medical colleagues against the enthusiastic and indiscriminate use of them.
  • He was one of the earliest (if not the earliest) to advocate for raising educational standards:
    • requiring not-for-profits status of all chiropractic colleges
    • requiring four-year programs be taught at all chiropractic colleges
    • integration of science into chiropractic college curricula
  • He argued for a two-year, pre-professional education admission requirement for all chiropractic college.

Dr. Budden may not be remembered for all of his many contributions and accomplishments or for the many positions of leadership in which he served. However, he will be remembered for being a scholar, politician, humanitarian, friend and above all, an educator. Were it not for his perseverance and willingness to sacrifice, there would be no University of Western States today. Most assuredly, had it not been for his generosity, WSC would have succumbed to financial hardship many times over.