R. Michael Cessna

Raymond Michael Cessna, D.C., was born in Kansas City, Missouri on August 1, 1932. After his parents divorced when he was 5 years old, Mike spent the next two years in an orphanage and in foster care. Michael returned to his mother in 1940 after she recovered from a long illness and remarried. His beloved stepfather, Willard, was very influential on Mike's upbringing. Raised Roman Catholic, Mike served as an altar boy, started trumpet lessons, joined the Boy Scouts and played football. By the age of 16, he attained the rank of Eagle Scout, in addition to playing in the H.S. band and on the varsity football team. As a star athlete, Mike earned an athletic scholarship in 1950 to the University of Colorado, where he played Offensive Tackle for two seasons for the Colorado Buffaloes. Mike majored in architecture. In 1954 Michael enlisted in the U.S. Army. Stationed in Anchorage, Alaska, Mike played in the 71st infantry division band and wrote and assembled music for the Anchorage Symphony. Honorably discharged in August 1956, Mike successfully began his professional career as a full-time architect and as a full-time student at Cleveland Chiropractic College in Kansas City. On weekends, he played in jazz bands and dance orchestras. In 1958 Mike met his future bride, Alta, and they were married four months later on July 26th. Dr. Cessna graduated in September 1959, established a practice in Kansas City, and started a family. Mike and Alta's beautifully rare, sixty-two years of marriage would produce six beloved children from 1959-1973- Michael James, Michael Stephen, Willard Mitchell, Allison Louise, Lesley Ann, and Janay Marie. (Michael J. and Janay M. died at birth.) As an avid outdoorsman, Dr. Cessna relocated his family to Seneca, Missouri, where they could camp the tri-state area and explore the great outdoors. Over the next eight years, Dr. Cessna specialized in sports medicine, provided weight training for H.S. athletes, served on the local school board and as a Scouts Master, belonged to the Lions Club, and remained active in the Catholic Church. A continued love of, and appreciation for, nature, conservation, and holistic wellness prompted Dr. Cessna to buy 18 acres of undeveloped land on Beaver Lake in Rogers, Arkansas. He also revisited his architectural training by designing and building both the family's beautiful lake-front home and the office for Cessna Chiropractic Clinic, where he successfully focused on internal disorders, preventive medicine and bio-nutrition. By the 1980s, Dr. Cessna's practice attracted patients across the United States and Canada. In 1983, he developed a computerized blood interpretation program, launched a computer diagnostic software company, and began lecturing to physicians in several U.S. cities. Mike's love of oil painting also continued. In the mid-1970s, Dr. Cessna was producing one canvas per week. He exhibited and sold many of his works in art shows in southern Missouri and Northwest Arkansas. Mike's final painting, "The Last Supper" was completed in November 1978. In 1989 Dr. Cessna retired from active practice and moved to Tucson, Arizona with his wife to concentrate on writing and teaching an intensive, 612 sessions-per-month lecture series, sponsored by several chiropractic colleges, across the United States. In 2000, he created an audio and online training course that is still utilized today. In retirement, which included suffering and recovering from a stroke in 2007, Mike continued to lead a purpose-driven life. He wrote and published Life Eternal, It's All About Glory, he attended mass daily, played trumpet in the church choir until his early eighties, and counseled boys sentenced to a state juvenile correctional facility in Catalina, Arizona. R. Michael Cessna often said "you cannot love what you're not willing to serve." Mike was a man of integrity, courage, compassion and sacrifice who unfailingly demonstrated his love and service admirably to his wife and family, in every community he lived, and in the profession he served. As a husband, father, grandfather, doctor, author, businessman, musician, painter, veteran, and athlete, Mike strived to live a life that mattered - one that glorified God in all things. Raymond Michael Cessna died on February 18, 2020 surrounded by his family. He is survived by his wife, Alta, of 62 years; his children Mitch, Allison and Lesley, and their spouses, Christi, Scott and Ken; his grandchildren, Matthew, Jenaye, Haley, Megan, Michael, Tyler and Caleb; and his faithful, canine companion, Reagan. He was 87 years young.