Mary "Mollie" McMillan has built a solid legacy as one of the pioneers of the profession of Physical Therapy, as well as a champion of massage and therapeutic exercises. She was the founding president of the American Physical Therapy Association.

Born in Hyde Park, Massachusetts, she received her education from the College of Physical Culture in Liverpool, England, where she worked with children under the tutelage of Sir Robert Jones at his Southern Hospital clinic. From 1911 to 1915, she was in charge of Massage and Therapeutic Exercise at the Greenbank Cripples' Home, before returning to the United States to become the Director of Massage and Medical Gymnastics at the Children's Hospital in Portland, Maine, until 1918.

During this time, efforts to repair a Europe decimated by World War I were getting underway, and in 1917, Dr. E.G. Bracket and Dr. Joel Goldthwait formed the Reconstruction Department of the United States Army. As the demand for workers increased, the department arranged short, intensive training courses for women to take their skills abroad.

McMillan was then serving as Chief Aid to a small group of faithful women ministering to the needs of returned soldiers at the Walter Reed General Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. It was here that she first began to exert her influence on the present day physical therapy industry, since a large percent of therapists have historically been army trained.

As the need for more trained women became urgent, McMillan moved west to become the Instructor of Special War Emergency Courses and director of the Clinic for Training Reconstruction Aides in Physiotherapy at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. In June 1918, about 800 women working for the Physiotherapy Division reported for duty at the United States Army Base Hospital No.114 in France.

In 1919, McMillan returned east as the Supervisor of Aides in Physiotherapy for the Medical Corps in Washington D.C. In the following years, she was Director of Physiotherapy at Harvard Medical School. It was during this time that she wrote her seminal book, "Massage and Therapeutic Exercise," composing it "not only for students but also for the women who had passed through short, intensive courses of theory and practice, many of whom will not be satisfied until they have reached a higher standard of efficiency." Though her hard work and good example, McMillan helped establish a new profession for women, holding open doors as she walked through them herself.

McMillan developed her theory of massage through her teaching experience. Though not based on a particular method, she made reference to J.M.M. Lucas-Championnie're and his work with fracture treatment, Sir William Bennett, Dr. Weir Mitchell and Dr. Douglas Graham, defining massage as "manipulation of soft tissues or as movements done upon the body." She divided massage into five fundamental procedures: effleurage, petrissage, friction, tapotement, and vibration, and organized her discussions of massage in that order. She preferred that students began their training by getting their hands accustomed to dry rubbing, and would use cod liver or olive oil in cases of excessive scar tissue.

When Pearl Harbor was attacked in1941, McMillan entered her second World War by volunteering her services at the Army Hospital in Manila, the Philippines. From there, her influence spread throughout the United States, the Philippines, China and Europe. Her drive and dynamic personality carried her to far parts of the world, and wherever she went, people could not help but admire her progressive ideas. Through the army training schools, her techniques concerning positioning of the patient, maintaining contact on the return stroke, stroking off the whole area, and alternate-hand effleurage and petrissage became an integral part of massage in the United States.

Most people would say that nothing good can come of war, but for McMillan, it provided the opportunity to compile knowledge and experience to help solve many of the medical problems of the day, particularly in the Physiotherapies.

She came to her medical war service well equipped with training and experience, and had extensive opportunity to observe the various forms of Physiotherapy and study their practical results. Her contribution was timely, and she came highly recommended to those who were interested in how manual massage and therapeutic exercise fit in to Physiology as a whole.

Mary McMillan died in 1959, and four years later, the Mary McMillan Lecture Award was established to pay tribute to her work. She was a dedicated pioneer of massage and physical therapy in the United States and abroad, the founding President of the American Physical Therapy Association. She was an advocate, teacher, and political activist on behalf of her belief in the value of manual therapies - especially massage - and her influence is still felt in the industry today.