Bastyr University’s storied history spanning four decades is captured in a beautiful new retrospective book. Rooted in Health: The Bastyr University Story by Kathleen O’Connor and Christine Ummel Hosler, charts the history of the University from 1978, when three naturopathic doctors in Seattle started the school, to the present day.

Vibrantly colorful photos and descriptive text helps document Bastyr’s 37 years of existence, showing just how far the University has come in a very short time.

“As we move forward toward the future, it is important to recognize and honor our past,” says Bastyr University President Charles “Mac” Powell, PhD. “The strides we have made as a University show that anything is possible with the right amount of determination, hard work and a little bit of good fortune. This book is a great way to memorialize every incredible step of the way.”

Defying the odds to not only survive but thrive, Rooted in Health captures Bastyr’s amazing journey, from its inaugural class of 31 students to its present incarnation of approximately 1,400 students, more than 6,000 graduates and two campuses and clinics in Washington state and California. Today, Bastyr University is the largest of the seven professionally accredited schools for naturopathic medicine in North America, the first one accredited in the U.S. and the only one accredited in California. And it all happened because the school’s founders bravely dared to dream.

From the synopsis: “As if from seeding to tall tree, the story of Bastyr University’s remarkable growth is told in this illustrated account of a naturopathic medical school that dared to blend science with natural remedies and to break through barriers of prejudice and mistrust. It pioneered innovative new ways to improve ‘the health of the human community’ as it foresaw in a vision statement.”

Rooted in Health: The Bastyr University Story is available at the Bastyr Dispensary as well as for online purchase at the Bastyr University Bookstore.