Edith R. Davis: a Life Well Lived

By Deah Kinion, LAc

We thank Edith Davis for being one of the cofounders of the Acupuncture Society of MN in 1978, as well for her unwavering efforts, commitment, and contributions to the association for these thirty years. Edith passed away this summer (2008) of complications from a heart condition. I am grateful for her wisdom, guidance, and friendship over these many years. I am also grateful to have had conversations with her this past winter when I was collecting history of the AOMAM for our 30th anniversary.

Edith tells of her first introduction to acupuncture in 1977 by Tai Chi teacher Sean Marshall who applied pressure to BL. 40 to effectively ease Edith’s backache. Edith began her study of acupuncture through a correspondence course. She took her final exam in that tutorial program in late 1978 and then began teaching from the course to many others out of her home in Minneapolis.

Sean Marshall was the first president of the Acupuncture Society of MN (ASM) when it was created in 1978 with co-founders Edith and Michael Helffrich. They held their first public meeting February 5, 1979, at Hamline University, in St. Paul. It featured Dr. Richard Stallard, DDS, who gave a talk Chinese and Western Medicine: a Common Denominator. Also that evening was a report on Progress of Licensure for Acupuncturists in MN and a film Acupuncture in America Today. Edith and Michael also had the first meetings representing the ASM with the Department of Health in attempts to begin regulation of acupuncture.

Edith recalled Robert Thatcher, DC, as the first in the state to post a big acupuncture sign in front of his office. He was charged by the Board of Medical Examiners with practicing medicine without a license. “His case never went to trial, but it reinforced the paranoia that kept practitioners underground,” says Edith. She shared this memory at the AOMAM Chinese New Year lunch in February, 2008.

Edith opened the first acupuncture clinic in MN, the Bao Jen (Good Health) clinic located at Emerson and Lake St. in south Minneapolis in January, 1982, along with Barbara Davis, Pat Culliton, Michael Helffrich and Jean Yu.

In 1983, Edith established The Healing Point clinic in Richfield. This clinic was the location for her students to observe and practice. The Healing Point stayed at that location until 1990 when Davis created the acupuncture school, the MN School of Acupuncture and Herbal Studies, and moved to a building in Minneapolis.. This school is now the MN College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, located within Northwestern Health Sciences University. The acupuncture clinic there is named the Edith Davis Teaching Clinic.

Edith was also involved with the national movement, first as the AAM “national representative.” She served on the Board of the National Commission for the Certification of Acupuncture (later known as the National Commission for the Certification of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine) from its inception in 1982 until 1990. There was a landmark meeting of leaders of schools and state organizations in Chicago 1982. She writes, “This was the hatching ground of the present national network of professional agencies. At that meeting the plans were laid for development of the Council of Schools, the Accreditation Commission, and the NCCA”.

The Society became the Acupuncture Association of Minnesota (AAM) in 1981. Edith continued to support and be active in the AAM, the precursor of the AOMAM. She had a knack for writing and editing, was on the legislative committee, and served as bylaws chair in 2007.

May 6, 2009, Gov. Pawlenty signed into law the Edith Davis Equal Access to Acupuncture law, a tribute to Edith, for her steadfast support and practice of acupuncture. This law creates parity for reimbursement to acupuncture.