Which person or event has had the most influence on your O&P career?

Kevin Carroll, who works with Hanger, was one of the most influential people to me. Kevin emphasized putting your heart into a specialty—something that you absolutely live for and love. I’d always been involved in pediatrics, but it wasn’t until [working with him] that I realized I really wanted to specialize in it. Now I’m a pediatric specialist. That was a huge, life-changing time for me.

Others, such as Danny Phelps, Todd Clay and Bob Lin, have influenced my business and specific pediatric techniques, so there’s definitely not just one person who has influenced me the most.
Nancy Kaselak, CPO
Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics Inc.
Gainesville, Ga.

O&P has been something I’ve known about all my life; there are practitioners in my family. But dealing with patients myself really influenced me more than my family.

Being in the field and actually making something with your hands lets you change a patient’s life forever. It gets you going. It’s rewarding when patients regularly come back to see you.
Ferhan Maher, CPO
American Prosthetics Inc.
Decatur, Ga.

Our biggest influence has been Birkenstock™. That was the brand we latched on to thirty years ago.
If you look at the classic Birkenstock sandal, you see the tremendous amount of research and wear testing that went into it. [We were a retail shoe store, but] Birkenstock’s supportive properties really led us into orthotics.

The medical community urged us to help them with some of their patients, which pushed us into pedorthics at first, and then, later, orthotics. That rounded out the scope of our business.

Birkenstock [influenced us because it] developed such a loyal following. The brand boomed in the 90s and our business continued to grow and grow and grow.
Van Boyd, C.Ped.
Innovative Bracing By Heel To Toe
Urbana, Ill.

My instructors made the biggest difference in my O&P career. I did my prosthetics training at Century College in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, and they had some really good instructors. Steve Stolberg still teaches there, and he’s excellent. You get a lot more practical training and patient contact [at Century College] than at the average school.

I would say that the training at Century College is just as good as it ever was—maybe even better. The field has advanced a lot. Sometimes I believe the younger students coming through probably could use better training, but that depends on the student, too. Younger practitioners have a different outlook.
Michael Lukens, CP
Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics Inc.
Wichita, Kan.

I was a physical therapist in the Navy during the Vietnam War. After the war I went to work for the orthotist who used to visit the base. Working with him generated an interest in the field, but working with professional athletes was really what influenced me and kept me in O&P.

I did the bracing for the Washington Redskins and the Denver Broncos, thanks to some connections with NFL coaches and players. I also knew physicians who worked with other top-level athletes, so I did bracing for other teams in the Denver area and the U.S. ski team, based in Vail, Colo.

Helping athletes to compete, thanks to my braces, was always a big inspiration. I designed the brace for Olympian Tracy Evans after she blew out her elbow right before the 2004 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. She was able to compete and place in the top ten.
Henry Osborne, CO
High Country Orthotics & Prosthetics Inc.
Casper, Wyo.

My stepfather, Ed Smygg, was my biggest influence. After World War II, he became involved with the University of California at Berkeley and its material science department, which had recently received grant money to research prosthetics.

He had been working on a prosthesis for the department chairman, who was a Symes amputee, and was asked by one of the graduate students in the department to develop and produce the research designs he was coming up with.

It was the significant work he was doing that influenced me. There hadn’t been that many advances in prosthetics until that time. This was the original development of modern-day prosthetics.
David M. Harning, CPO, LPO
Ryder Orthopaedics Inc.
Naples, Fla.