Commemorative Speeches

Ida Rolf’s Sons Speak About Dr. Rolf and Her Work Ida P. Rolf’s two sons both spoke at the First Annual Fascia Research Congress, held in Boston in October 2007. The following articles are their prepared talks, which they have graciously shared with us. From them, we learn more about Ida P. Rolf as a person, how she came to create the work we know as Rolfing®, and what it was like to grow up under her tutelage.

A Brief Talk About Ida Rolf By Alan Demmerle

da Rolf often said she would rather be home, moved there, and started a family. cian, Dr. Morrison, who lived and worked Iremembered for her work than for her My brother Richard was born in 1932 and in Port Jefferson (about ten miles east of life story. Consequently there is little writ- became a Chiropractor and Rolfer. I was Stony Brook), and for several hours per ten biographic material about her. Let me born in 1933 and became an electrical en- day, once per week for several years, she offer you a brief picture of who she was, gineer and researcher. would read and discuss scientific journals as painted by myself, her non-Rolfer son. and texts with him. He was one of the very Dr. Rolf was insatiably inquisitive. She Her view that the only thing that mattered early osteopaths; I would guess he was ardently studied aspects of anatomy, physi- was what she did had a few disadvantages. born around 1870. Indeed, he had lived and ology, psychology, philosophy, religion, Nature abhors a vacuum, and thus people worked in San Francisco during the famous yoga, general semantics, homeopathy, and sometimes create stories or embellish tidbits earthquake and fire of 1906. even astrology. She slept relatively little, of data that are known about her. I want to and my childhood recollections include In 1939, Ida Rolf and family moved to take this opportunity to sketch parts of her her invariably reading some serious subject Manhasset, Long Island, about twenty life, as I knew her, to put to rest some of the matter (never a novel) when I went to bed miles east of New York City. This move was incorrect stories about her. at night. She was invariably up before me motivated by the fact that my father, Walter She was born in May 1896, an only child, every morning. She was first and foremost Demmerle, who worked as a consulting and lived her early life in the Bronx, New a curious and imaginative intellectual, with engineer from his office on Wall Street, in York. Her father was a civil engineer who a passion to understand the world around New York City, had become weary of the made his living building docks and piers her. She told me that my father once had two-hour commute from Stony Brook. In on the East Coast. Her mother was one fallen from a horse while they were on a addition, it was reported that the Manhas- of six sisters, all of whom lived in New honeymoon camping trip in the Canadian set public schools were superior to the ones York City. Ida Rolf was educated in New Rockies, and she then began wondering serving Stony Brook, and my brother and I York public schools, received a Bachelor’s about the nature of sprained ankles and were of school age. I would guess, though degree from Barnard College and earned how to facilitate their healing. Perhaps this it was never said, that she felt the value of a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Columbia event stimulated her interest in the human moving to a town of professionals and in- University. At the age of twenty-five she body. It is my observation that she uncovered tellectuals in closer proximity to New York married Walter Demmerle, a childhood and the principles and techniques of structural in- City, a place she always loved. family friend. He was an electrical engineer tegration as a result of an intellectual passion It was about that time, she was in her late who had graduated from Cooper Union in driven by curiosity and manifested by long forties, that her work toward the develop- New York City. She kept her maiden name hours of study and hard work. Whenever she ment of structural integration got a sharper since she already had a Ph.D. with the encountered a problem with herself or her focus. My brother and I were in school, and name Rolf on it and had begun her career family, it was her nature to seek a solution. she had more opportunity to pursue her as a researcher at the Rockefeller Institute She was always open to new ideas and other interests. (now called The Rockefeller University). was willing to try new methods on herself Organizations such as Johns Hopkins and or her family. In the spring of 1947, my father died of the Rockefeller Institute were leading the heart disease; my mother was fifty years She quit her job at the Rockefeller Institute way in the developing field of medical re- old and he was fifty-three. My brother and and was a stay-at-home mom when my search. At this time, she lived in Greenwich I were fourteen and thirteen. She had no brother and I were born. She may have Village, New York. When her parents died significant inheritance and little in the way found living in Stony Brook — a bucolic, in 1928, they left her waterfront property of family support. She developed a clien- very small town at that time, which is fifty in Stony Brook, Long Island, New York on tele and continued to develop her work. miles east of New York City — a bit isolated which was a small summerhouse. She and In the meantime, she was as attentive and for someone with her intellectual interests. her husband winterized and added to this supportive as any parent could be of her She befriended a blind osteopathic physi-

Structural Integration / December 2007 www.rolf.org  Commemorative Speeches two teenage boys. She helped us identify middle of the house and onto our heads. given out. We waited for John to finish his an appropriate career path and gave each These storms, in addition to the very high unsuccessful tempting of the fish and get to of us a college education. My mother was winds and rain, usually bring exceptionally where we waited. Together we would de- supportive, caring, loving, encouraging, high tides. In this case, the full-moon tide cide what to do if time alone could not cure unemotional, and nonjudgmental. She was (spring tide), the diurnal tide, and the storm the collapse of Ida Rolf’s legs. John kneeled there when we needed her and not there surge caused by the exceptionally low baro- on those sharp stones of that crumbling when we didn’t need her. metric pressure all coincided, prompting path, worked on my mother’s legs and back an uncommonly high tide in Long Island for fifteen or twenty minutes and produced Dr. Rolf had a few expressions that I es- Sound. Boats broke away from their moor- a miracle as Rolfers sometimes do. Ida Rolf pecially remember her for. 1) “If you have ings consequent to these enormous tides gathered herself up and plodded up the rest nothing to say, say nothing,” with its corol- and wind. My father’s boat was moored of the path to the house. She had done what lary “If you have nothing good to say, say in the harbor in front of the house when she wanted to do; she had gotten down to nothing.” She lived by this idea. Small talk this tide and wind conspired to transport the edge of the sea and returned. It was I was not her forte, and most importantly, this small cabin cruiser into the old town who had suffered the anxiety and trepida- she was not critical of others and she never of Stony Brook. The boat was smashing in tion of that dangerous assent. Her outlook maligned anyone. This is not to say that she store windows when a resident near these on the dangers of that trip seemed to me was retiring. In fact, she was demanding of stores telephoned my mother with this cavalier. In retrospect, however, I see her at- herself, her colleagues, and her students. 2) news. In the height of this viscous wind and titude as just her desire to live in such a way She often said that her accomplishments, rainstorm, she went to the town, boarded as to get the most out of life. The risks those whatever they were, came from “10% in- the boat, started the engine (a major job circumstances presented were worth it. It spiration and 90% perspiration.” Indeed she under the circumstances) and piloted the was a demonstration of her appreciation of was a hard and tireless worker driven by boat back down the main street to the har- the adventure of living to the fullest. curiosity and a dedication to understanding bor. Courage, conviction and fortitude were the human body. It has been my pleasure giving you this very elements of Ida Rolf’s constitution. brief sketch of Ida Rolf. I would recommend Circa 1959, Dr. Rolf sold her two houses, one The second event that I would like to use two other sources of reflections about Dr in Stony Brook and one in Manhasset, and to demonstrate Ida Rolf’s character took Rolf. Certified Advanced Rolfer™ Sam moved to an apartment at Riverside Drive place when she was seventy-six years old, Johnson in the IASI Yearbook 2007 wrote a and 74th street New York City. She lived on and living in a house on the edge of a cliff stimulating and well-documented article the 14th floor on the west side of the build- bordering the sea in Big Sur, California. “Ida Rolf and the Two Paradigms”, which ing with a spectacular view of the Hudson Those of you who have been to Big Sur documents some of her history and devel- River and the sunsets over New Jersey. She can readily appreciate the steepness and ops some ideas as to her journey and the had a special attachment to sunlight, which general character of these cliffs. In front of evolution of structural integration. I have flooded that apartment, and she enjoyed this house was the top of a switchback path found the Johnson article well worth read- that living arrangement for about ten years. leading down to the ocean’s edge, a path ing.1 2) There is a book, edited by Rosemary She then moved to Blackwood, a New Jer- that would intimidate a mountain goat, Feitis and Louis Schultz and put together by sey suburb of Philadelphia, to live in the and even myself, a healthy, sure-footed the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration® vicinity of my older brother Richard and his thirty-nine-year-old at the time. However, called Remembering Ida Rolf. It is comprised family. During these years she traveled a lot it did not faze Ida Rolf, despite the fact that of stories and anecdotes about Dr. Rolf. If and spent considerable time in Europe and she was suffering some mobility limitations you have an interest in some of the experi- California, forever seeking development of due to old age. A senior Rolfer and friend ences of many of the early Rolfers with Dr. her work and teaching others the principles of hers, John Lodge, and she decided it Rolf, I recommend you look at this book.2 and techniques of structural integration. would be interesting to go down the path She died in the spring of 1979, at the age of Perhaps someday someone will compile to the surf — John to fish and she to cheer eighty-two, working to the very end. Her more complete biographical material about him on. I was visiting my mother for the remains rest in the family plot in Woodlawn Ida Rolf. I imagine it will be a difficult job weekend and was unwittingly recruited to Cemetery in the Bronx, New York. because the people who knew her are get- accompany her down the cliff. My opposi- ting old, some are dead, and notes and let- I would like to relate two events that dem- tion made no dent in her determination. My ters concerning her personal life are scarce. onstrate Ida Rolf’s pluck and grit. The first worries about her slipping off the trail on Even so, documenting what she did will be event took place when she was forty-two the loose crumbling rocks didn’t deter her. the easy part. To report how she did it, and years old and the hurricane of 1938 de- She declared she had lived a good life and what motivated her is bound to be the prod- scended upon New England doing major if she slipped and fell it would be a worthy uct of the reporter’s imagination. Myths are damage to Long Island, Connecticut and end. I was tuned into the problem that if abundant, but they are a tricky foundation Rhode Island. The September storm struck she fell, there was no way to get her back from which to build biography. with no warning; long-range weather fore- up to the house. The path was unsuitable to casts, satellite imagery and television were carry someone. The trip down fortunately technologies that were still undeveloped. was without incident. When the time came Editor’s Notes My father was at work in New York City to go back up all went well, though slow, 1. This article was reprinted in the June 2007 as my mother, my brother, and I marveled for a while. About 80% of the way up, she issue of Structural Integration. at the fierceness of the storm, expecting declared she couldn’t go on any further, and 2. Published in 1996 by the Rolf Institute the next falling tree to crash through the had to sit down. Her legs, she declared, had

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