ACOFP: OUR CONTINUING HISTORY 115 Leadership and AOA. He retired from practice in 1994, devoting time to travel, family, and gardening. He died Dec. 20, 1998, two days before his 75th birthday, following complications from cardiac bypass surgery. 1984–1985 EDWIN G. DOEHRING, DO, FACOFP Algonac, Michigan Born in 1927, Dr. Doehring graduated from the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1955. Dr. Doehring assumed the ACOFP helm at a time when the traditional way of delivering medicine was under scrutiny. A new concept of “health care reform” was being debated at various governmental and medical levels. Increasing turmoil from this ideal was noticed within the government and in the public sector. Intrigued with the possibility of controlling medical payments, the U.S. Congress was holding hearings on the subject. Much of Dr. Doehring’s presidency was spent in Washington, D.C., with Dr. Saloom and the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care. Dr. Doehring was one of the first presidents to explore the possibility of international practice for osteopathic family physicians. Securing outside financing from Hoechst Marion Roussel, a German pharmaceuticals company, he took the entire Board of Governors to Europe, visiting medical facilities in Vienna and Budapest. The entire board educated European physicians on the role of osteopathic medicine in health care. 1985–1986 RUDOLPH JOSEPH WOLF, DO, FACOFP Skiatook, Oklahoma Though born in Kewanee, Illinois, in 1935, Dr. Wolf was an adopted Oklahoman. He attended the University of Texas at Austin to gain a premedical education, which led him to the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, where he received a DO degree in 1960. Dr. Wolf went to Oklahoma Osteopathic Hospital to intern and decided that his life laid in rural medicine. He became certified in 1973 and was inducted as a fellow the following year. Dr. Wolf became an ACOFP governor in 1977 at a time when the board made the historic break with Jack Hank and Allied Appraisals. These hard times prepared him to meet the challenge of decreased reimbursement and outright exclusion from managed care programs. He focused on the problems of new physicians entering practice and wrote a detailed paper for publication on the timetable for beginning practice. Dr. Wolf grappled with rising malpractice rates and ACOFP continuing medical education programs. He appointed the first Task Force on Equivalency to evaluate and prepare a position paper on the equivalency of the osteopathic family practice residencies as compared to the allopathic counterparts. Under his watch, there were assaults on ACOFP from within the osteopathic profession. AAO had proposed becoming the sole certifying body for OMM, and he established the Task Force on Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine to find solutions for this issue. ACOFP later resolved the threat when it began issuing certification for
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