Rehabilitation center's 75th anniversary draws old friends

WARM SPRINGS - As the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, many who once spent time working there are returning for visits. <br> <br> One such visitor is Thorkild ``Tork&#39;&#39; Engen, an internationally known researcher and inventor of orthotics who began his career at what was then known as the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation in 1952. <br> <br> Engen spent just two years at the foundation in the tiny town about 30 miles north of Columbus that had been popularized by President Franklin Roosevelt, who said the healing 88 degree waters helped alleviate the effects of his polio. <br> <br> Engen later worked at Baylor University School of Medicine in Houston, where he created the Harrington Rod, or Harrington Spinal Instrumentation. The device helps straighten and correct curvature of the spine in polio and scoliosis patients. <br> <br> Engen, who at age 78 continues to do research and teach at Baylor, was impressed by what he found upon his return to Warm Springs. He said he is very excited that the institute is building a facility that will consolidate many services under one roof. <br> <br> ``I wish I was 50 years younger and maybe I could be part of it,&#39;&#39; he said. ``It is very important to integrate a variety of services and technologies, working together rather than separately. That will provide far more benefit for the patient.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The researcher first learned about the polio research going on at Warm Springs when he attended the first International Polio Congress in Copenhagen in 1950 and met Dr. Robert L. Bennett, director of Georgia Warm Springs Foundation. Warm Springs had already become internationally known as a place of healing. <br> <br> Roosevelt came in 1924, invited by George Foster Peabody who enticed him with the story of a young Columbus man who discarded his crutches after swimming regularly in the Warm Springs Pool. <br> <br> Roosevelt&#39;s severe paralysis did not respond so dramatically, but he loved Warm Springs so much that he bought the resort property in 1926 and began transforming it into a therapeutic center for polio patients. <br> <br> He became President of the United States six years later.