Dr Forrest C. Shaklee- The Founding Father of Shaklee Corporation

Discover The Man Who Built America’s Number 1 Natural Nutrition Company- The Shaklee Corporation

• The Early Life of Dr Shaklee
• The Birth of Shaklee Corporation
• The Legacy of Dr Shaklee.

Established in 1956, Shaklee have spent the last 54 years dedicated to improving consumer health and wellbeing. Pioneers of green living and early adopters of multilevel marketing, Shaklee have always been ahead of the competition. The company has grown from being a small family operated business to a large, successful network marketing company worth over $500million today. Shaklee Corporation was the vision of one Dr Forrest C. Shaklee.

Dr Shaklee was born in 1894 with tuberculosis, and doctors did not give him a long life expectancy. His parents shunned medications in favor of nutritious food, exercise and living in a natural, toxin free, healthy environment. This gave Dr Shaklee first-hand experience of the amazing benefits a healthy lifestyle can have, and played a fundamental role in shaping his future career.
After spending some time as a travelling carnival performer, Dr Shaklee began his career in chiropractic medicine as he was “interested in building health” rather than curing illnesses.

In 1915, he opened up his first practice in Rockwell City, Iowa. Rather than just stick to traditional chiropractic procedures, Dr Shaklee began giving advice to patients about their diets and distributing detailed nutrition diaries to monitor patients’ progresses. 1915 was also the year Dr Shaklee developed techniques for extracting nutrients from food, and introduced “vitalized minerals” to a market, a primitive version of vitamin pills.

The concept of vitamins was not fully understood at this time, and so the vitalized minerals failed to really kick off.
Dr Shaklee later became ordained as a minister in 1929, and received his doctor of divinity in 1933. Following the death of his wife Ruth in 1941, and his sons being enlisted in the armed forces, Dr Shaklee retired to a remote part of California. Returning to work in 1945, Dr Shaklee began a second career as a motivational speaker and author. His books were mainly focused around the concept of “Thoughtsmanship”- the importance of positive thinking.
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In 1956, Dr Shaklee combined his motivational philosophy with his many years of experience as a nutritionist, and founded the Shaklee Corporation with his two sons; Forrest Jr and Raleigh. The Shaklee Corporation opted to use the relatively unknown multi-level marketing business model. Dr Shaklee felt network marketing was the best structure for his business as it tied in with this desire to help and improve lives: “We’ll teach some and they’ll teach others to teach others to teach others.”
Their initial product range included Pro-Lecin Nibblers, Herb-lax and Vita-Lee. In 1960, the iconic product Basic H Concentrated Organic Cleaner was released on the market, and Shaklee have not looked back since.
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Dr Shaklee lived a long and prosperous life, and lived to the ripe old age of 91, when on December 16 1985, Dr Forrest C. Shaklee suffered a fatal heart attack. Thanks to his healthy, natural and nutritional lifestyle, Dr Shaklee was able to live to see his company become successful. Since his death, Shaklee Corporation has grown to a multinational business, and is experiencing great success all over the world. Although the Shaklee Corporation is no longer run by the Shaklee family, it still follows the philiosophy instilled by Dr Shaklee, and continue to work and Living in Harmony with Nature®. The legacy of Dr Shaklee lives on.
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