CROWN POINT -- Doctor of Chiropractic Nelson Hyatt has retired after serving the public for more than 62 years.

"I didn't want to retire, but my license was up for renewal, and I didn't feel like renewing it," said the jovial 89-year-old Crown Point man, smiling.

His has been a storybook life.

"I graduated in 1939 from the Texas Chiropractic College in San Antonio, Texas," Nelson said. "But I waited for two years for the military to take me, which they did, and I didn't begin practicing until 1946."

ON THE HEELS OF D-DAY

His induction into the U.S. Army during World War II placed him in a Field Artillery unit at Fort Ethan Allen in Essex Junction, Vt., for two years, where he did some training with 155mm Howitzer guns.

"We went to Pine Camp, Fort Devins, Mass., for practice, and maneuvers in North Carolina," said Nelson.

He was shipped to France and landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy on June 8, 1944, two days after the D-Day invasion.

"I was with most of the same soldiers the whole five years," Nelson said.

He decided to continue his education after the war and attended Lincoln Chiropractic College for a year in Indianapolis, Ind. On Nov. 1, 1946, he opened his chiropractic office in Ticonderoga.

Nelson attributes his early beginnings in Ticonderoga to Dr. Winfred Gage, who had moved to Crown Point.

"Dr. Gage turned over his patients to me and his office, so that helped me to get started," said Nelson.

Gage is the father of Pearl McMurtry of Crown Point.

Soon after opening his business, Nelson took under his care a young woman who was suffering from Bell's palsy, a unilateral facial paralysis of sudden onset and unknown cause.

"I worked with her every day for the first week and treated her for three weeks," said Nelson. "I concentrated on the spine, as the nerves from the spine go to the face."