A Lifetime of Giving

Dr. William Harris Seeks to Strengthen the Profession by Strengthening Chiropractic Schools; Donates $500,000 to Northwestern

William Harris, DC, has been a supporter or Northwestern for decades. Here he is pictured (at left) with Jim McDonald, MBA, vice president of administrative services, and John Wolfe, founder of Northwestern and president for 43 years (at right).

There is a 103-year-old retired English teacher in Tennessee who will find a $100 bill in a Christmas card this year. In fact, it will be the 75th Christmas she has received such a bill from William Harris, DC, since she encouraged him to pursue chiropractic as a career.

“My father’s life was saved by chiropractic,” says Dr. Harris, a 1938 graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic. “I was impressed with results, so, when I was in high school and I had to write a theme, I wrote that I wanted to become a chiropractor. My English teacher said chiropractic was an honorable profession that would be recognized one day. To thank her, I send her $100 every Christmas.”

Dr. Harris’s legacy of generosity and his long-standing devotion to chiropractic are readily apparent. Through the Foundation for the Advancement of Chiropractic Education (FACE), which he founded in 1978, Dr. Harris has donated millions to further the profession. Among his donations was a $1 million gift in 1990 to fund construction of the Wolfe-Harris Center for Clinical Studies (WHCCS) at Northwestern and a $200,000 grant to fund a chair in business and practice management at the University.

His most recent gift is a $500,000 donation to help fund the Wolfe-Harris Center for Excellence, a 48,000-square-foot addition to the south side of campus that will house the WHCCS, the Greenawalt Library, administrative offices and the Integrity Management Student, Alumni and Career Services Center.

The gift comes in the form of a challenge grant. For each of the next five years, Dr. Harris will match dollar for dollar up to $100,000 donations to Northwestern. By structuring the gift that way, he says, the University will raise at least $1 million over the next five years. He adds that he hopes that alumni, grateful patients, and corporate sponsors see the value of the project.

“The only way we are going to improve the quality of chiropractic is to improve the quality of the education,” says Dr. Harris. “When you change the destiny of a school, you change the destiny of the profession.

Office of Alumni, Development and Career Services
Phone: (800/952) 888-4777, ext. 412 or ext. 237
Email: giving@nwhealth.edu