BONNIE PRUDDEN
1914 - 2011
OBITUARY
Bonnie Prudden, fitness pioneer and founder of Bonnie
Prudden Myotherapy®, passed away at her home in Tucson on December 11,
2011. She was 97. “You can’t turn back the clock, but you can wind it up
again,” she told her students and patients, and that is how she lived her
life. She was born on January 29, 1914, in New York City.
When she was three years old, the curious and energetic
Bonnie would climb out of her bedroom window and wander the neighborhood
at night. A wise doctor gave her frantic mother some advice. “There is
nothing the matter with this child that discipline and exhaustion won’t
cure. Put her in the Russian Ballet School.” It worked, and by the time
she was 10, Bonnie was a professional dancer and eventually performed on
Broadway with the Weidman/Humphrey concert dancers. Bonnie equated
exercising to music with happiness, and said, "body movement has a
language all its own."
She became an avid rock climber, skier and fitness
enthusiast. At age 23 she fractured her pelvis in four places during a
skiing accident but wouldn’t take no for an answer when told she would
never be able to climb or ski again and could never have children. Bonnie
had two children and in 1943 was the first woman awarded the National Ski
Patrol Badge. She has 30 first ascents to her credit in the “Gunks.”
“Bonnie holds a place in the climbing history of the Shawangunks that has
yet to be superseded by any other woman. Bonnie was a luminary in the
climbing scene for more than a decade” said Laura Waterman, author of
Rocks and Roses, a book about women climbers.
After watching her daughter’s dismal gym class in the
1940's, Bonnie decided to use her background in dance and athletics to
give neighborhood children “conditioning” classes. As the classes grew she
used the Kraus-Weber test for minimum muscular fitness to chart student
progress and noticed that new students failed the test and returning
students passed. Bonnie and Dr. Hans Kraus, Kennedy’s White House doctor,
worked together to test thousands of children across American and in
Europe and found that Americans were the least fit. The results, presented
to President Eisenhower at a White House luncheon in 1955 and known as the
“report that shocked the President,” led Eisenhower to establish the
President’s Council on Youth Fitness, now the President’s Council on
Physical Fitness and Sports.
Bonnie was a columnist and advisor for Sports Illustrated.
In 1957, in a full length leotard of her own design, she launched a line
of fitness fashions on the cover of Sports Illustrated. She had her own TV
show in the 60's, appeared on countless radio talk shows and wrote 15
books and numerous articles. She also invented exercise equipment.
Bonnie always felt that if individuals had the correct
information and tools that they could, for the most part, take care of
themselves. In 1976, she developed Bonnie Prudden Myotherapy®, a
non-invasive, remarkably simple method of relieving muscle pain. She went
on to write Myotherapy: Bonnie Prudden’s Complete Guide to Pain-Free
Living in which she shows step by step through photographs, charts and
drawings how to erase and recover from muscle pain and how to maintain,
repair, tune up and take charge of your body. In 1980 she opened a school
to train myotherapists to erase pain from muscles by pressing on the
trigger points and then using appropriate exercises to keep the muscles
free of pain.
In 2006 Bonnie was inducted into the Fitness Hall of Fame
and the Massage Hall of Fame. In November of 2007, at age 93, she received
the Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the council which
she co-founded. She was chosen “based on the span and scope of an
individual’s career, the estimated number of lives the individual has
touched through his or her work, the legacy of the individual’s work, and
additional awards or honors received over the course of his or her
career.”
Bonnie brought hope and inspiration, laughter and play to
thousands of people. She made this world a better place and the impact of
her wonderful accomplishments will live on and continue to benefit us all
through her teachings. “Very seldom do wonderful things happen while we
wait,” she said, as she marched to the beat of her own drum.
In celebration of Bonnie’s life, memorial donations can be
made to: Bonnie Prudden Myotherapy®, Inc. 4330 East Havasu Road, Tucson,
AZ 85718, or by
clicking here.
Read Bonnie's last interview in
Natural Health
Practitioners of Canada (NHPC)
Connections Magazine, Fall 2011:
Bonnie
Prudden: Inspiring Health at Every Age
(reprinted with permission)
Click here to continue to
Bonnie Prudden Myotherapy main site.
Toll Free Phone: 1-800-221-4634
Local Phone: (520) 529-3979
Fax: (520) 529-6679
info@bonnieprudden.com
Bonnie Prudden Myotherapy, Inc.
4330 E. Havasu Road
Tucson, Arizona 85718
Copyright © 1998-2012 Bonnie Prudden Myotherapy, Inc.
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