10 THE FOUNDING AND EARLY YEARS could face extinction if that did not change. The committee members were also part of a group that considered California DOs to be the more progressive scientific arm of the osteopathic profession, and equal in every way to their allopathic colleagues. It was their strong opinion that the AOA was holding them back professionally. Their solution to “save the profession” was to sunset the DO degree and join with the dominant profession as equals. Not everyone was supportive of this plan to amalgamate, so this movement stalled for a number of years, but the committee members continued to function and kept the idea alive, just not publicly. A gifted and highly entertaining speaker, Dorothy Marsh, DO, was very successful in convincing other DOs that the profession would soon become extinct if it continued on a path divergent to the MDs. In her view, AOA leadership was clinging too tightly to the principles espoused by A.T. Still, MD, DO, and would soon miss the last window of opportunity to reverse course and become more scientific. It was Dr. Marsh who convinced most of the founders of the ACOFP in California to surrender their DO degrees. Sadly, and most notably, was Frank E. MacCracken, DO, the author of the Osteopathic Oath, and ACOFP’s first Physician of the Year. Dr. MacCracken had been an ardent opponent of amalgamation with the MDs, but Dr. Marsh was successful in convincing him it was the only way to save the profession. The California Osteopathic Association (COA) was one of the largest state organizations in the osteopathic profession and provided excellent direction and leadership to AOA. COA had been one of the strongest allies standing with AOA in its struggle against the American Medical Association’s attempts to brand osteopathic medicine as a cult that needed to be eliminated. However, by 1961, the efforts toward amalgamation of the two California professions had become more overt, and resistance to any attempt of a merger dwindled among much of the osteopathic community. Many DOs were too involved in their practices to be interested with the intrigues of governance and medical politics taking place in their professional society. Sadly, there were also a significant number of DOs who coveted the MD degree over their earned DO degree. They viewed the AOA as holding back their career opportunities in California, so to them, joining the dominant profession was a pragmatic move to save their practices (“The California Takeover,” Dorothy Marsh, DO, COA President, 1961) (“Osteopathic Identity, Equality, and the California Merger,” Haily Ryan, JAOA 2011.111.5.339). Joining the two professions would be championed almost two decades later by an eminent California osteopathic obstetrician and gynecologist and COA president, Dorothy Marsh, DO. She campaigned relentlessly for the amalgamation of the two professions to “rescue the osteopathic profession,” in her words.
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