PART I: Who Was Dr. Herbert M. Shelton?
A Dr. Herbert M. Shelton TimeLine
career. He moves into a "dictation only" mode.
1975 Dr. Shelton, Dr. Vetrano, and many others set up 1,660 acres in Pearsall, Texas, chartered to become "Sheltrano," an Hygienic Community and College. It is a long story of intrigue and dark happenstance that takes place. And the project finally folds with much loss to many.
1976 Vickey Bidwell, age 29, takes a 17 day fast at Dr. Shelton's Health School. She never formally meets Dr. Shelton. But she does see 2 attendants take him on walks, one on each side, holding him up, while he drags himself along. He is extremely emaciated. He certainly does not look like he could hold onto life another 19 years! During these 17 days, Vickey studies Natural Hygiene. She meets Dr. Vetrano. She studies Dr. Shelton's Hygienic System. And she receives her calling to create Hygienic literature that it is absolutely inviting, lively, and fun! She further receives her vision for The GetWellHGrassRoots Victory Wagon. She feels a deep affinity with Dr. Shelton's writing style and his rhetoric. See pages xx and xx.
1978 According to Jean Oswald in Yours for Health, "The biggest scandal in the history of the practice of Natural Hygiene takes place." Dr. Shelton's Health School takes in 49 year old Hal Conrad. He is suffering with ulcerative colitis. The medical doctor orders a colostomy and iliostomy, the cutting out of the large intestine, and a cutting in the stomach area, and the wearing of a sack to collect fecal matter for the remainder of life. The details are long and many. He dies of a heart attack when rushed to the hospital, and the wife sues for $890,000 on a charge of "negligence." For the next 2 years, while in litigation, business at Dr. Shelton's Health School booms! The School is filled to overflowing, and trailers are brought into to fill the need. This is, no doubt, partly due to "T.C. Fry's Heydey" and his millions of leaflets and publications going out across America. Dr. Shelton's advertising in them pays off. By 1980, after running Dr. Shelton's Health School single-handedly for 17 years, Dr. Vetrano decides to go her own way and opens a health school in Brownsville, Texas. Dr. Shelton's Health School goes under new management that does not last long. The last issue of Dr. Shelton's Hygienic Review goes out in 1980. In 1983, the courts rule against Dr. Shelton and Dr. Vetrano, with no appeal privileges. They are to pay the full $890,000 to the wife of the former Hal Conrad. Both parties are completely bankrupted. Shelton even has to sell off his mighty library of collected and cherished works of all The Hygiene Pioneers, whose teaching he had drawn from so steadily and so heavily his entire life. They go to the American Natural Hygiene Society library for safekeeping and are open to members for in-house viewing.
A Summary of the activities of the American Natural Hygiene Society, begun by The Prime Mover Dr. Herbert M. Shelton, from 1948 to 2000... A yearly convention becomes the main event for the ANHS through the years, and some 30 local chapters throughout the United States and the world are established. By 1979, Dr. Shelton is quoted as saying, "The growth of the Society has been disappointingly slow." In the 1980s, the 30 local, self-supporting chapters throughout the United States are dissolved. From 1978 to the 1990s, The ANHS establishes and then dissolves the Natural Hygiene Press. During these early years, Shelton urges the Society to continue publishing and marketing books. But most importantly, he also urges them to create an ever-expanding army of Natural Hygienists who focus on making movies and tapes and writing books to supplement the ANHS activities so that The People could become more fully educated. The ANHS prints a bimonthly, high-quality magazine, Health Science. Its circulation, and thus membership, reaches approximately 9,000. It serves well to announce ANHS yearly conventions and to market a limited number of Hygiene classic books and numerous tapes, as well as to offer articles and contacts from Hygienic practitioners and paraprofessionals. The ANHS also sponsors several seminars yearly, and it is involved in many other activities to promote Hygiene for The People. Its affairs are handled responsibly and expeditiously. By the 1990s, the ANHS serves more as a life-support system for Natural Hygiene, rather than as the vehicle through which "The Great American Health
