Life College Founder Backs Chiropractic Field : Profile: The Georgia institution president is fiercely devoted to the practice. But some find his penchant for self-promotion damaging to specialty’s credibility.

MARIETTA, Ga. —  A mere plaque or portrait on campus wouldn’t be enough to identify Sid Williams as president and founder of Life College.

Williams, who runs the bustling chiropractic school with an evangelist’s fervor and a salesman’s bravura, thinks big--for himself and his profession.

His face is chiseled into the large bronze eagle statue that stands as the college’s symbol. Mementos of his life, from Boy Scout to football hero to college president, comprise a shrine to “Dr. Sid” in Life’s reception area.

In his cluttered office is the tombstone of Harvey Lillard, believed to be the world’s first chiropractic patient in the mid-1890s, as well as a bust of the man.

“I’m going to make a shrine to him,” the 66-year-old Williams said. “I’m into that sort of thing.”

Williams’ intense devotion to promoting chiropractic has won him a legion of admirers. His suburban Atlanta college, founded 20 years ago with 22 students, now has 3,600 students and 600 faculty and staff members. He is a hero to the local chamber of commerce and regularly hobnobs with top politicians and entertainers.

Williams recently found a new way to promote Life when its basketball team, which includes several junior college transferees, reached the finals of a basketball tournament. The title game, which Life lost, was televised nationally on ESPN last month.

But his penchant for self-promotion, including television advertising, has infuriated some who say such antics damage chiropractic’s credibility as a mainstream form of health care.

“The concept of P.T. Barnum--I don’t care what they say as long as they talk about me--that went out with the circus,” said Louis Sportelli, a chiropractor in Palmerton, Pa. “We need responsible, articulate and reasonable spokespersons for chiropractic. We’re not dealing with a stupid public.”

Sportelli is a spokesman for the American Chiropractic Assn., a rival of the smaller, Williams-led International Chiropractors Assn.

The 23,000-member ACA says Williams’ career has been marked by statements contradicting the scientific approach advocated by most chiropractors.

Williams rejects such criticism, particularly that which is aimed at his commercials, which appear on cable TV.

With his striking shock of silver hair, imposing brow and fixed smile, Williams is the star of the commercials, strolling the campus and expounding on Life’s concept of “Lasting Purpose.”

“It’s the American way,” Williams said. “If you take advertising out of the American system, you don’t have the free enterprise system.”

Williams became a believer in chiropractic after a chiropractor healed injuries he suffered while playing football for Georgia Tech, he said.

After graduation, he and his wife, Nell, studied chiropractic at Palmer College in Davenport, Iowa. He sold cooking utensils to pay the bills.

Williams made good grades but had no passion for chiropractic until he had a flash of inspiration one day, he recalled.

“I had an experience with the idea of chiropractic and I understood it for the first time after I’d been there for two years,” he said. “I was elated . . . this was a total, revolutionary new idea that was bigger than religion, law or medicine.

“That was when I fell in love with chiropractic. I loved it as intimately as anything I ever did,” he said. “Now I’ve got my wife, my family, my friends, chiropractic. Everything that I do is in that love capsule.”

He has since relied on such moments.

“Every benchmark that I do I don’t think of it with my conscious mind,” he said. “It is revealed to me from within.”

Nell and Sid Williams returned to Atlanta in 1956 and started a practice that grew to 18 clinics in the Southeast. An initial attempt to start a chiropractic college failed, but Williams finally opened Life in 1974 and has since expanded the program to include other degrees such as business administration.

“He was involved in everything, from lecturing to the day-to-day running of it,” said Robert C. Lombardo, an Atlanta chiropractor and 1982 Life graduate. “He’s not a phony. He just states strongly what he believes in.”

Williams wants to win university status for Life, launch a cable TV network and finish writing the five books he’s working on simultaneously.

He has earned the right to toot his own horn, said Phil Sanders, president of the local chamber of commerce.

“Sid is a great visionary and a great leader,” Sanders said. “He has a real success story and he’s proud of it. I think that’s great.”