John Harvey Kellogg's accomplishments are impressive by any measure: Superintendent and surgeon at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, inventor of myriad medical and surgical instruments; the man behind the discovery of the therapeutic value of electric light and the sinusoidal current, founder of the health food industry at Battle Creek and last, but certainly not least, author of the groundbreaking book, "The Art of Massage."

However, like most visionaries, he was not always so well thought of. When Kellogg began his work, his techniques were looked upon with a great deal of suspicion, and were even considered by some to be "allied to quackery." It was only through a lifetime of tireless research and advocacy that he elevated himself and his field to the deserved and prominent place they hold today.

One of Kellogg's biggest accomplishments was his early standardization of a massage technique. He believed that there were very few people in the United States who were really skilled at massage, and set about writing his book to "eliminate the unnecessary and inefficient, and to develop and perfect those methods capable of securing most definite and prompt results." He sought to describe as clearly as possible the various procedures of massage as they were practiced at his Battle Creek Sanitarium, and believed it was home to the largest and most continuous experience with a massage method than at any other center in the United States. Centered on the belief that "massage is especially valuable as a means of quickening the circulation and other forms of vital activity," he was also a groundbreaker in combining other forms of therapies (such has hydrotherapy, the arc light and a strict diet) with massage to achieve the best results for his clients.

But Kellogg's efforts were not only practical - he also believed in education. A "practical study of anatomy was absolutely indispensable," he felt, to properly understanding massage and its skillful application, and that "it was highly important that the masseur or student of massage should have a good knowledge of the physiology of the nervous system."

He spent many years researching his techniques, and achieved scientific results as a result of his hard work. He knew the value of massage and touch, defining it as "not simply an ordinary touch or contact of the hand with the body, but is a skilled or professional touch. It is a touch applied with intelligence, with control, with a purpose, and simply as it is, is capable of producing decided physiological effects." Because of his investigations into the study and application of massage, he established beyond all question that "massage affords one of the most effective means of influencing the functions of the human body".

Though Kellogg is considered a true father of modern massage, his personality and habits were no less fascinating than his work. He was a short man, but he used showmanship to offset his small size. He loved attention and actively attracted it by dressing entirely in white.

The son of John Preston Kellogg and Anne Jeanette Stanley, John Harvey Kellogg was born on February 26, 1852, in Tyrone, Michigan. His family moved when he was four years old to the village of Battle Creek, Michigan - the headquarters for the Seventh Day Adventist movement. Raised in a devout Seventh Day Adventist family, his father was a man of conscience and fierce loyalty, and, having converted to the faith in 1852, eventually became a leader within the church.

Kellogg was acquainted early on with the "healthy living" tenants advocated by his church. Adventists were required to abstain from meat, tobacco and alcohol, and relied on preventative health practices, such as hydrotherapy and massage, to ensure wellness.

In 1866, church founders Ellen and James White opened a Health Reform Institute, where hydrotherapy - or the water cure - was practiced. The institute needed a full-time medical director, and the Whites took an interest in the young man, helping finance his medical education.

In the days before medical licensing, a doctor's education was a patchwork of informally arranged courses, and Kellogg began his training by spending six months at Dr. Russell T. Trall's Hygieo-Therapeutic College. Having read up on organic chemistry, he knew that many of the body's processes were chemical, and was determined to get a more scientific medical education. He then enrolled at the University of Michigan and, after six months, moved to New York to attend Bellevue Hospital Medical School.

While in New York, Kellogg developed a strict dietary regimen for himself, living almost entirely on apples, graham crackers and grated coconut. He devoted himself to his studies and, within a year, graduated in 1875 to become a doctor. For the next few months, the new doctor toured Sweden, Germany and France, learning everything he could about foreign medical techniques. When he returned to Battle Creek in 1876, he took a position as the institute's medical superintendent when he was only 24 years old.

Kellogg had taken on a big job. The institute cared for many indigent church members and was thousands of dollars in debt. The facility was in desperate need of reform, and if ever there was a reformer for desperate times, it was John Harvey Kellogg. He coined the term "sanitarium" and changed the focus of the Health Reform Institute from hydrotherapy to medical and surgical treatment. "A sanitarium," he said, "is a place where people learn to stay well." He renamed it the Battle Creek Sanitarium.

Kellogg was a generous man, and took no fees for his work with the Sanitarium or for any of his surgeries. His entire personal income was derived from royalties from the nearly 50 books and medical treatises, which he published during his long career. He wrote primarily about his principles of "biological living," constantly seeking to educate the public, as well as his peers in the medical profession, about the virtues of his health reform ideas.

Kellogg had a real talent for public relations, and his strategy made the institute famous all over the world. His plan was to attract celebrities and, accordingly, the rich and famous flocked to Battle Creek. He offered discounts to famous businessmen, such as mail-order mogul J.C. Penney and grape juice king Edgar Welch. These men served as magnets to the sanitarium, and social climbers and self-made men paid handsomely to dine in their company on unbuttered zwieback.

Kellogg had raised the Sanitarium to national prominence as a "place where people learn to stay well." He offered 200 kinds of "baths, douches and fomentations," the number of clients grew to 5,000 and the center had a gross yearly income of $4 million. In short, he had unquestionably solidified his "Battle Creek Idea" that good health and fitness were the result of good diet, exercise, correct posture, fresh air, massage and proper rest.

Running the center and serving as its physician-in-chief were Kellogg's chief duties, but he also used the sanitarium as an educational facility. He appointed himself dean of several schools, including the school of home economics, a training school for nurses and the Battle Creek Sanitarium School of Physical Culture. These three schools were later merged into Battle Creek College.

But simultaneous positions as administrator, surgeon, dean and lecturer were not enough for the ambitious doctor. He also ran his own publishing company, serving as author, editor and distributor of several magazines and dozens of books on many topics. Sometimes Kellogg's book subjects were strictly medical, other times they were oriented toward contemporary health habits.

Kellogg was able to manage his enormous load of responsibility because of his frenetic work habits, but this hyperactivity inevitably took a toll on his body. To his embarrassment, the health reformer suffered from lifelong bodily ailments, and in his later life, admitted that he didn't observe his own health rules. However, he defended himself by saying that "my business is to preach, and really I haven't time to practice. I am looking after other people's health, and my own health has to take the best chance it can."

The doctor's physical problems may have stemmed from his distressing childhood, which had given him an insecure emotional foundation. In adulthood he continued to suffer from anxiety attacks, and fatigue and overwork in concord with a sensitive nature kept him constantly teetering on the brink of nervous collapse.

Though Kellogg disliked non-health-related business, it was necessary for him to generate income to support his many enterprises. He owned and operated several manufacturing companies, including the Battle Creek Health Food Company and Sanitas Company.

Through one of his efforts, he developed wheat and corn flake breakfast cereals, but his medical ethics made him reluctant to attach his name to commercial products. However, his brother, Will Keith, enthusiastically marketed the business empire, and eventually turned Kellogg's Toasted Corn Flakes into a household brand.

Meanwhile, the sanitarium was doing well and added a fifteen-story addition in 1928. Unfortunately, the stock market crashed the next year, and the rich clients who had patronized the center no longer could afford to come.

Kellogg continued to operate despite increasing financial difficulties. By 1930, the institution could no longer survive at its current size, and in 1942 the main building was sold to the federal government. Kellogg moved his treatment center to the nearby Fieldstone Annex building.

The former Sanitarium building was converted to the Percy Jones General and Convalescent Hospital, an orthopedic hospital that served the nation's veterans through World War II and the Korean conflict. It was the US Army's largest medical installation until 1954, when the building was converted to offices for federal civilian and military departments.

Despite the difficulties he faced, Kellogg was a man of tremendous talent and personal conviction. At a time when one patient out of five died on the operating table, he performed 165 abdominal surgeries in a row without a fatality. His dedication and conviction helped curb the influence of powerful tobacco producers, which had tried to hide smoking's health hazards, and he was a humanitarian who, in addition to his tireless health crusade, even founded a home for unwanted orphans.

Today's massage therapists have reason to feel gratitude toward him, who, through his efforts, lent legitimacy to the practice of massage.

John Harvey Kellogg died on December 14, 1943, at the age of 91. He was still active as a physician and administrator. At the time of his death, he held more than 30 patents for food products and processes, as well as exercise, diagnostic and therapeutic machines. He is credited with developing such diverse products as peanut butter, a menthol nasal inhaler and the electric blanket - a remarkable legacy for a remarkable man.