Florence Peterson Kendall has had a lifelong love affair with the human body. The 11th child of Swedish immigrants, raised on a farm in Minnesota, she vaulted from academically talented young athlete - high school valedictorian and graduate with a bachelor of science degree in physical education from the University of Minnesota - to one of the nation's most celebrated women in the field of physical therapy.
In 2002, the Maryland Chapter of the American Physical Therapy Association named Kendall Physical Therapist of the Century.
On June 21, 2004, Advance, a magazine for physical therapists, published the results of a survey to identify the profession's "giants." Among the most influential people in orthopedic physical therapy, Kendall was No. 3.
The Severna Park resident, who turned 95 in May, graduated from college in 1930, when automobiles were as rare a sight on neighborhood streets as doctors making house calls are today.
Throughout her more than 60-year career, Kendall has made it her business - whether she is treating patients, teaching at the University of Maryland School of Medicine or at the School of Nursing at Johns Hopkins Hospital, or writing books and journal articles - to practice physical therapy the way the old family doctors practiced medicine, with "compassion and sincerity."
"It should be hands-on," she says. "That's what I tell young physical therapists."
As degree requirements for physical therapy increase, practitioners are finding it necessary to earn master's degrees and doctorates.
Kendall is concerned that a therapist with postgraduate degrees will be more inclined to supervise patient care than to remain in touch with patients.
"This is a profession for caring, conscientious and sincere people," she says.
Kendall is respected by her peers and held in high esteem by more recent graduates.
"Every physical therapist knows of Florence Kendall and has studied her work," said Jeannie McClellan Hines, 33, a physical therapist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, Vt.
"Kendall developed the very foundation of muscle testing and posture evaluation still used today," said Hines, a 1989 graduate of Severna Park High School and a 1994 graduate of Northeastern University in Boston. "She is an incredible woman and has long been a leader in the field of physical therapy."
