Dr. S.N. Kowitt

JERRY PERSON

It was not too many years ago that I related the story of the lives

of Herb and Millie Day who ran a beach concession under the Pav-a-lon

at the entrance to the Huntington Pier during the 1960s.

We learned of how our local residents and beach visitors would

return year after year just for a taste of Millie’s famous “Strip

Sauce.”

This was her secret recipe, and so many would dip their tortilla

chips into that special treat.

I ended that column with a request for Herb to bring me a sample

of that marvelous tasting sauce sometime.

But that was not to be, for we lost Millie on Sept. 20.

This week we are going learn something about osteopathy.

This employs a system of medical practice that surmises diseases

are due to loss of structural integrity, and that wellness could be

restored by manipulation of parts of the body and supplemented by the

use of medicine or surgery.

One who practices this field of medicine is called an osteopathic

physician, and this week we’ll look back at Huntington Beach’s Sam

Kowitt.

In the 1950s Kowitt was the only osteopathic physician in our town

and had his office in the City Hotel at 307 Main St.

It was in Persia that Sam Norman Kowitt was born in 1907 in the

town of Aschabad.

This town is about 10 miles from the beautiful Caspian Sea.

He would spend his first five years in this country before his

family would come to America to live in 1912.

They would live in Galveston, Texas before moving to live in the

Portland, Ore. area.

Kowitt would receive his early education in that city, and it was

in 1926 that Kowitt graduated from Lincoln High School in Portland.

He would then enroll as a premed student at the University of Oregon,

but he would soon switch to geology and paleontology.

He had become interested in prehistoric animals, and went so far

as to mount the bones of a saber tooth tiger for the school’s art

museum.

It was at this time that his family convinced their son that he

should continue his studies in medicine.

He would listen to their advice and in 1931 received his

bachelor’s degree in medicine.

Now out of school, Kowitt would spend the next three years earning

money selling shoes in a local shoe store.

With enough money, Kowitt enrolled at the College of Osteopathic

Physicians and Surgeons in Los Angeles. In 1940 he left college with

a doctor’s degree.

From 1940 to mid 1941 Kowitt would serve his internship at the Los

Angeles County General Hospital.

It was in the fall of 1941 that he opened his private practice in

the Hollywood area.

Kowitt would remain in the Hollywood area for the next nine years,

but he had tired of big city life, and in 1950 he opened his Orange

County office in Laguna Beach.

While in Laguna Beach he caught the acting bug and could be found

on-stage at the Laguna Beach Playhouse taking directions from its

director Hap Graham.

At this time he also took an active interest in the local boy

scouts that were sponsored by the Laguna Beach Optimist Club.

In 1952 Kowitt would open a second location, and this time it was

in Huntington Beach on Main Street.

He would try to run both offices, but in 1955 he closed the Laguna

Beach practice to devote his full time to our residents.

In 1955 Kowitt would be elected to serve as the first Exalted

Ruler of our Huntington Beach Elks Lodge.

At first he made his home at 822 13th St., and later would reside

at 7792 Franklin Drive here in Huntington Beach.

Kowitt would eventually leave his Main Street location and open a

practice in the newly built Town and Country Center at 18582 Beach

Blvd. Suite 207 and would remain there throughout the 1970s.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.