Dr. Ernest Napolitano

1985 — On June 2, 1985, Ernest G. Napolitano, DC, LLB, PhC, long time president of the New York Chiropractic College (NYCC), passed away. The Digest of Chiropractic Economics printed an obituary as well as a previously unpublished tribute to “A Noble Man,” authored by L. Ted Frigard, DC.

A 1942 graduate of the Palmer School of Chiropractic, Dr. Napolitano served with distinction in the U.S. Army and was awarded the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. After brief service as dean of the Atlantic States Chiropractic Institute in New York City, Napolitano succeeded Frank Dean, DC, as president of Columbia Institute of Chiropractic (later renamed NYCC) in 1959.

Napolitano supervised the college’s move to its Long Island campus and achieved accreditation from New York State’s Department of Education, from which he secured considerable funding. He served as a member of the International Chiropractors’ Association’s board of control, but brought his institution within the American Chiropractic Association’s Council on Education in the mid-1960s.

He was subsequently a founding member of the Association of Chiropractic Colleges and the Association for the History of Chiropractic (AHC). Napolitano served as the seventh president (1982-1984) of the Council on Chiropractic Education, and was president of the AHC at the time of his death.